


Spirit

by Anonymous



Series: LittleKuriboh's Fics [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series, Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-15
Updated: 2006-07-07
Packaged: 2020-10-20 04:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 43,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20669255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: [this is a repost of littlekuriboh's original FFnet fics, mainly so i don't have to go onto FFnet ever again in my life]Following his tragic death, Yugi returns in spirit form alongside the Pharaoh to watch over his friends.[note: this fic was never finished]





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Spirit](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/520553) by LittleKuriboh. 

> Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or any of its characters. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi.
> 
> Hello again, reader. Before you read the opening to this, my newest fanfic, I should explain a couple of things. First off, it's a bit of a rush job. The reason for this is that I'm off up to Scotland at the end of the week and I wanted to get something going while I still had time. Second, it was written while I'm still working on my other _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ fanfic, 'Prehistory'.
> 
> Usually I don't like to write two stories at once, since it's liable to make them both intertwine and become all muddled in my easily baffled brain. But this was the kind of story that just demanded I write it before I forgot all about it and moved on to something else. I don't know whether that's a good thing or not, I just know I had to get it out of my system.
> 
> So anyway, without any further ado, try to enjoy this 'un.

Yugi sat up.

He didn't remember falling asleep, nor did he recall resting on the verge of the stream. His fingers scratched away the lethargy crawling in the corners of his eyes, and he squinted at his surroundings in an attempt to apprehend some semblance of memory. Nothing struck him as familiar – from the endless, rolling hills, to the ancient, towering trees; even the sky, peppered with myriad clouds, seemed foreign. Sound consisted of little more than the whisper of rushing water, while all other life remained still and serene.

It was nearly enough to frighten Yugi, for he had never before found himself in such a place. He had ventured from the world of light into that of shadows; he had been thrust into a vibrant virtual maze, not once but twice; on occasion, he had even voyaged into the realm of his own mind. But this was something else altogether – something that, at first sight, seemed to lack both the magic and the mystery of those places. What worried Yugi, as it would any other boy, was that he didn't know precisely _where_ it was, or _how_ he had gotten there – and most importantly, he had no earthly idea where any of his friends were.

"Joey? Téa?" he called out, his words piercing the quiet. He had almost expected to hear his own voice echo back in response, as if to provide assurance that he was indeed alone – but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of the stream. "Hello? Isn't there anybody…?"

He stopped, horrified. Something was wrong. Deeply wrong. He knew he hadn't fallen asleep here last night – but then, he didn't remember _anything_ about last night. Closing his eyes, he tried desperately to come up with a rational explanation for his predicament. Perhaps he was dreaming? Yes, that would account for a fair share of it – except this seemed far too vivid for even the most lucid of dreams. He could feel the reassuring warmth of the sun on his face; he could feel the faint prickle of the wind as it tickled his earlobes; he could feel the dull pain when he bit anxiously into his lower lip. This was no dream. He was really here.

Feverishly, he got to his feet in an attempt to rouse his spirits. After all, there had to be _somebody_ around here that was willing to help, or even tell him how he ended up in such a place; Yugi couldn't afford to believe otherwise. He would follow the stream as far as he could, all the while searching for signs of civilization. It was as good a plan as any, he supposed.

Again, he paused. Something definitely felt different. It was like something was missing, as though his balance had been thrown off somehow.

"My shoe!"

Yugi hadn't noticed at first, but now that he was upright he could feel the soggy earth seeping through the sock on his right foot – his shoe was missing. Now he was even more bewildered than before. Why would he have taken it off? Did he lose it? Had someone stolen it?

"Oh, come on," he muttered, chiding himself jovially. "Why would someone steal a shoe? It's hardly the most valuable thing I have. And if they wanted it so bad, why not take both of them? Of all the dumb…"

He gasped. Throughout that last train of thought, he had been absent-mindedly stroking the one possession of his that would be worth stealing – his Millennium Puzzle. It was then that he understood why he felt so very disturbed – so alone and afraid.

_Spirit!_ he cried out hopelessly inside his head. _Spirit, are you there? Please answer me!_

Yugi's heart sank. There was no response.

How could this be? They were meant to be inseparable as long as he had the Puzzle. Frantically, he pressed his hands to either side of the golden pyramid, embracing it as best he could. He called out to his partner again and again, willing him to respond as he had done so instinctively a million times before. No answer came. This could only mean one thing – the spirit had left him, as had all the others. Yugi froze in place, cupping the empty shell of the Puzzle to his chest, utterly oblivious to the stream and the trees and the sky above, and the multitude of questions that had been buzzing about his head. He began to cry.

"You can't all be gone!" he shouted, his voice weak and indistinct. "You can't be! I'll find you… I'll find you, guys!" He took a step, faltered, and fell onto one knee – unable to find the strength to continue. He had lost so much in the space of but a few minutes. First his bearings, then his friends, then his partner – the spirit of the Puzzle. The only thing left to tear away was his soul. "Spirit! Where are you…? I need you! I need… I… I…"

So this was what it was like to truly be alone.

A long time ago, he had thought himself alone. He had no real friends at school, nobody to talk to or to play with. At times it had seemed as though he were invisible, like the rest of the world couldn't even be bothered to notice him. He could remember walking home all by himself, glad that he would at least get to see his grandpa upon his return. But as much as he loved his grandpa, a relative was by no means a replacement for a friend. So he had made a wish that he would find a friend – a rare, one-of-a-kind buddy who would stick by him throughout all the hardships and the grief life had to offer. Appropriately, he made the wish on the Millennium Puzzle, which had seemed as rare and one-of-a-kind as the friend he imagined he would most like to meet. And it came true – against all odds, the wish came true. Joey, Téa, Tristan – their friendship had been the stuff dreams were made of. Best of all, he'd met the spirit of the Puzzle, who had come with the guarantee that he would never again have to worry about being alone.

Until now.

Yugi hunched forward, still cradling the Puzzle protectively in his arms. If only he understood what was happening, then perhaps he could accept it – maybe even try to overcome it. But he didn't. He couldn't. He had been brought here against both his comprehension and his will; he would never have given up his friends voluntarily, so it stood to reason that he must have been led here by some evil, corruptive force. It was the only explanation he was willing to accept. But who, or what, was responsible?

"I swear," Yugi spoke through clenched teeth, "On my Puzzle… That I will not rest until I find my friends again! Do you hear me? Do you?" He cried out to the world, knowing deep down that he was only talking to himself. Regardless, he struggled to his feet and set off down the path he had chosen, following the bank of the stream.

\--

It felt like days had passed before he finally sat down to catch his breath, although in reality it had only been a matter of hours. The environment was playing tricks on his mind; at times it seemed like he was making no progress whatsoever, and every so often it felt as though he was actually walking backwards. It was like one of those nightmares where he would find himself being stalked by creatures from right out of his Duel Monsters deck. He would try to run, only for the stable ground beneath his feet to become like so much quicksand, allowing his pursuers to draw upon him just moments before his eyes would open and he'd find himself lying in bed, his heartbeat still racing.

"And you'd comfort me," he spoke softly, placing a hand on the Puzzle around his neck. "As I'm sure you would comfort me now… If you were here, that is."

_But you're not,_ he added silently.

They had grown so close, Yugi felt, that a life without the other would have been simply unimaginable. They were like brothers – closer, even. The spirit had meant everything to him; he'd been a friend, a protector, a shoulder to cry on, a kind voice when all else was callous and cruel. At the end of the day, Yugi hoped he'd been able to make it up to the spirit. Whenever they got in a fix, he would do his best to show fortitude and offer a helping hand when his partner needed it, for there were times when even an ancient pharaoh needed support. They had learned a lot from one another – about Duel Monsters, life, and the importance of friendship. A bond like that couldn't possibly have just vanished into thin air.

"I don't know if you can hear me," Yugi whispered, holding up the Puzzle; itsglossy surface was cold to the touch. "But I promise I'll find you again. I mean, we never even got to duel each other, right?" He allowed himself a smile. "And believe me, I'm not gonna go down without a fight."

He placed the Puzzle in his lap and stared out across the stream; under any other circumstances, he mused, this would've made a beautiful place to stop and rest – maybe even have a picnic. He closed his eyes and imagined the gang all seated in the shade of a tree on the opposite side of the river; Joey and Tristan were having a food fight while Téa and Bakura looked on in earnest, hoping against hope that they wouldn't get caught in the fray. Serenity was with them, and Mai, and Duke, and Grandpa too – they all seemed so happy. Yugi felt his heart skip a beat as they all turned toward him, their faces lighting up like beacons. One by one they beckoned him to cross the stream and join them on the other side, and Yugi was about to do just that, when he felt his stomach tighten reluctantly. He couldn't just dwell in fantasy when his friends might be in real danger – he had to find them, and fast.

Scrambling to his feet, he was about to set off once more when suddenly he spotted something hidden in the reeds on the river's edge. He walked toward the bank, numb with excitement – hopeful that whatever it was would, if not give him some form of clue as to his whereabouts, at least break the monotony of his trek. He held his breath as he parted the tall green stems, the sound of rushing water seeming to reverberate within his head, and then at last he saw it.

"My shoe…"

Yugi reached down and picked it up, regarding it with perplexity at first. What would possess somebody to take someone's shoe, walk away with it, and then drop it in amongst some reeds? It didn't make any sense – which, of course, meant that it fit right alongside the rest of the day's events. He peered into it; seeing nothing, he reached inside with his slender hand, hoping to find some trace of clue concealed therein as though this were all some bizarre and torturous scavenger hunt. He smirked despite himself, having found nothing; things were never quite as simple as he hoped they'd be, but up till now that was what had made his life so worth living. Without his friends, however, he found such trials to be somewhat less invigorating.

"Well then," Yugi chirped, slipping the shoe back onto his foot. "It's good to have you back. Let's just hope I can find the others somewhere down the line, too. I bet they're waiting for me right now… and I can't exactly disappoint them, can I?"

Giving his toes a good wriggle, he clicked his heels together and carried on following the course of the river. There was nowhere else he could go.

\--

Yugi awoke with a jolt. He had fallen asleep by the side of the river, having traveled for nigh on half a day; despite all this, however, the sun had refused to set or even shift its stalwart position in the sky. Time, it seemed, was at a standstill – as was everything else in this godforsaken place. The boughs of the trees were stiff, refusing to swing in the breeze; the clouds hung perpetually in the sky as if they were part of some painted backdrop; even the grass seemed unnaturally rigid. There was no wildlife to speak of, either; the lack of birdsong was proof enough of that.

The prevalent constant throughout his lonesome journey had been the sound of the river, which brashly buffeted his pride and determination every time he felt as though he had been making progress. In his head it had grown into a relentless roar, putting him in mind of Seto Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He half-expected to turn around and see the young billionaire standing on the opposite bank, his brow furrowed and his arms closed tightly across his chest in that ever condescending posture of his, scoffing at Yugi's predicament. He would call out across the stream, telling him to just give it up; it wasn't worth worrying about a bunch of losers – why not just stop right where he was and wait for somebody else to find _him_? It was a nice enough spot, and he was clearly tired of all this searching. He couldn't just go wandering about in the wilderness purely because his friends had left him there to rot.

"They didn't leave me here!" Yugi snapped, forgetting for a moment that he was on his own. His hands tightened into fists, clutching at the ends of his sleeves as he struggled with doubt. "I'm going to find them, Kaiba! You'll see!"

He got up, his chest heaving rapidly, and turned away from the stream; following it hadn't done him any good thus far, but he wasn't about to surrender to this seemingly insurmountable challenge. He would find another way out of this torment, and the only other option that he could see was to venture out into the forest and scale the highest hill he could find. Upon reaching the top, he would then survey his surroundings, hoping to catch a glimpse of the nearest town or, at the very least, figure out where he was in relation to the rest of the world. So he trudged onwards through the trees, the watery tumult behind him slowly dissipating until only the crunch of his footfalls could be heard. Relief washed over him; if he had been forced to listen to the river for much longer, he would have likely drowned himself in it just to salvage his sanity.

The ground beneath him gradually began to ascend, and Yugi could already feel hope rising in his gut for he knew that this meant he would be in for a change of scenery. He hadn't been this enthused since he'd stumbled upon his shoe. Perhaps somewhat naïvely, he began to wonder what was over the ridge up ahead. Would he see a beaten path marked by footprints and faded bicycle tracks? Would he see people walking through the woods on an outing – people who would hear his desperate pleas and take him to the nearest house, with a telephone and a bath and all the other amenities he'd previously taken for granted? Would he find his friends climbing up the other side of the hill in order to seek him out? Would they spot him first? Would they gasp and rush to meet him, their collective exhaustion all but forgotten? Would they cry tears of joy, as he was now just by picturing this? Would they really be waiting for him on the other side?

_And will you be there with them?_ he wondered wistfully, his moist eyes falling to the Puzzle dangling from his neck. _I hope so. I sure hope so._

At long last Yugi reached the top; he stood paralysed at the edge where the slope began. Now he could see it with his own two eyes; there was no beaten path – no strangers willing to lend him aid. His friends were not there. _He_ wasn't there.

The only thing waiting for him was the stream.

"That's… not… _possible_!" Yugi yelled, furiously flinging his arms into the air.

Yet it was undeniably the case; the river had somehow looped around and cut him off at the pass, lying purposefully between him and the hills beyond. Yugi hurtled down the slope, his legs practically giving way beneath him as he slipped and skidded on the dry grass, and threw himself to the ground at the edge of the stream. He bit hard at the soil, as though he was trying to wound the very earth for betraying him so spitefully. The familiar sound of rushing water was the only response to his angered sobs; what had once been a cheerful, reassuring noise had become like a dreadful and contemptuous laughter burning at his ears and ripping away his stoicism. He had no means of escaping it.

Then, something dawned on him. Something about the curve of the river seemed familiar, as though he'd been here before. For the very first time since he'd found himself lost and alone amidst these never-ending woods, he had recognised something. This was a breakthrough comparable to his completion of the Millennium Puzzle! Hastily, he traced the outline of the stream in his head, hoping to determine just where he'd seen it before – but he hadn't the faintest idea. It looked like every other stretch of the river he'd walked alongside that day, right down to the dense outcropping of reeds on the opposite bank.

_Wait a minute,_ he thought, abruptly. _The reeds were on _my_ side of the river before… _He shook his head in disbelief; that didn't mean anything. After all, the reeds could've just as easily sprung up on the other side. But even so, something nagged at him subconsciously and insisted that things weren't quite what they seemed. Then, it dawned on him. _Oh no! No, it can't be!_

Inspiration took hold of him. He found a bare patch of earth, sufficient enough for his purposes, and stuck his finger deep into the ground until the dirt had risen up to his meet his knuckles. He dragged his digit through the yielding soil, sketching as best he could a triangular shape; he added the finishing touch in the form of an eye set deep into the centre of the image. He nodded, content with his representation of the Puzzle, and immediately scurried off up the hill, back in the direction he'd come from.

_Please tell me I'm wrong,_ he begged as he made his way to the top. _Tell me I'm imagining things. Tell me I'm crazy if you have to! Just don't tell me I'm right about this…_

Soon enough, he was standing in the same spot where he had first decided to turn his back on the stream. Everything on the side nearest to him was as it had been, but on the opposite bank lay something that Yugi didn't recall seeing before. He could just make out a section of earth where someone had scrawled an awfully familiar shape – that of his Puzzle. It was identical to the one he had drawn, right down to the minor inconsistencies. There was no getting around it; he had been standing on the other side of the stream.

"No… I don't believe it," Yugi sank to the ground. "I can't!"

Not that he hadn't been expecting this; he just had no way of understanding it. Somehow, someway, he had been trapped inside a sort of ethereal maze whose walls were indivisible from the world around him. He'd solved plenty of mazes in his time; none of them were very difficult, just so long as you could see the exit. But right now, the exit was nowhere in sight. He didn't even know if there was one. This particular maze – if you could really call it that – seemed intent on leading him back to the same path, one that would keep him lost in its clutches for eternity. Were his friends also trapped here? And if so, would he find them if – by some miracle – he managed to get to the centre? Or would he just carry on into obscurity, separated from both time and memory?

Yugi knelt at the water's edge, staring into the ever-shifting surface of the stream. Like it or not, this was his anchor; as the spirit had been before, now the stream was to be Yugi's partner. Wherever he would go within this world, it would be there beside him – for there was simply no escaping it. He leaned forward, hoping to see his reflection as that would at least offer the illusion of company; he could talk to it, even delude himself into thinking that he was addressing the spirit of the Puzzle, and hide from isolation behind a thinly veiled wall of pretense. Right now, it was the closest thing he had to a friend.

But his reflection failed to return his gaze.

It wasn't even there.

The harder he looked, however, the less alone he felt; for coursing through the current, he could see pallid shapes weaving their way downstream. Shadowed entities that seemed to have a life of their own, and the more he watched them the closer they resembled faces – human faces, with eyes that smiled rapturously and mouths wide with unending peals of silent laughter. Yugi watched them fluttering about beneath the water, sometimes rising so close to the surface that he thought one might emerge and usher him down to join them. He should have been afraid. Scratch that, he should have been terrified of them. But he wasn't. Perhaps it was the sheer pressure of loneliness that had driven him to appreciate these ghostly masks, which bobbed and dove like graceful, colourless fish, but he knew somehow that they were _good_. Something in his heart told him he had no reason to fear them – and with that knowledge tucked safely away inside his conscience, he extended an arm out to try and touch one of them.

"YUGI!" a voice suddenly bellowed. "Don't!"

Yugi froze. It wasn't the urgency of the command that had stopped him, nor was it the fact that it had used his name. He knew to whom that regal, passionate voice belonged. It was _him. _"Spirit!" He rose, and turned in the direction from which the voice had struck his senses.

Standing not ten feet away, the spirit was regarding him intensely. He looked different, despite being clad in the very same attire that Yugi was accustomed to, as though he had been fundamentally – yet imperceptibly – changed. Regardless, he was still the same old spirit, and Yugi was overcome with emotion upon seeing him; he rushed forward and wrapped his arms around the apparition's waist, wishing that he might never be forced to let go. He didn't want to lose his friend twice in one day; their bond may have been broken somehow, but their friendship was alive and well inside their hearts. He could feel it in the warmth that spread outward from the spirit's body as they embraced – their bond was gone, but their love remained.

"Spirit, I…"

Yugi blinked, his fingers slowly retracting from his friend's figure. He pulled away and stared up at his partner, his eyes widening in disbelief. Something unbelievable had happened, something that couldn't be explained away with a simple maze analogy. He had been touching the spirit – as though he was flesh and blood!

"What's happened to you?" Yugi asked, shaking his head in awe. "Are you… for real?"

"Yes, Yugi," the spirit nodded solemnly. "I am real. I am here with you."

"But…" Yugi made confused gestures at his friend's body. "I can feel you. I can… I can touch you? Why? Tell me…!"

It wasn't meant to happen this way. He had dreamed many times over in the past that he might one day be able to physically interact with the spirit, as he could with his other friends. When they'd inhabited the same body, that had proven impossible; even when the spirit would project his body as a phantasm of sorts, which only Yugi himself could perceive, they could only feign interplay. Yugi wanted to be ecstatic, to be thrilled by his partner's newfound corporeal nature – but he was too afraid of what it could mean.

It was then that he noticed the telltale traces of tears upon the spirit's typically stalwart cheeks.

He had been crying.

"Spirit!" Yugi grabbed his partner's arms and shook them urgently. "You have to tell me what's happened! There's so much I don't understand… Where are we? Why aren't you inside the Puzzle? Where are Joey, and Téa, and Tristan, and all the others? What's happening, spirit? Please!"

"Yugi…" was all the spirit could say in response.

"And why can I touch you all of a sudden?" Yugi buried his head into the spirit's chest, frightened by it but at the same time oh so thankful. "Why here, why now?"

"Yugi," the spirit replied. "I cannot tell you. I cannot bring myself to explain…"

Yugi recoiled. "Then you're not real after all!"

"What? No, Yugi, I…"

"The real spirit of the Puzzle would sense how I'm feeling," Yugi's voice wavered as he fought against his own frailty to deliver the words that now burned within him. "Even without the Puzzle to bind us together, he would know; I'm sure of it. He would see that I was hurting, and he would do everything in his power to stop it!"

"I swear I will do anything to prevent you from suffering," the spirit placed a hand on Yugi's shoulder. "We are partners; I am your protector, Yugi."

"But how can I trust you if you won't even tell me what's going on?" Yugi demanded.

"It is for your own safety," the spirit explained.

"I don't believe you!" Yugi took a step back. "Nothing in this place is what it seems to be; I bet you're no different!"

"Yugi!" shouted the spirit, his eyes flaring with an unmistakable concern. "Do not turn away from me. I came here so you wouldn't be alone anymore."

"Where were you before, then?" Yugi sniffled, lowering his eyes and reflecting on his brief yet arduous experience in this otherworldly place. "Did you even know I was here? Do the others know I'm here? I need to know!"

The spirit frowned, his brow fracturing into a thousand sorrowful creases. "Then you really don't remember any of it."

"Any of what?" Yugi growled impatiently, wanting to scream at the top of his lungs. "Tell me what happened! Prove to me that you're still my partner, in spite of whatever may have separated us!"

The spirit nodded respectfully. "Very well. I will tell you whatever it is you wish to know." He paused. "But I cannot promise you'll like it."

"I'd like being kept in the dark even less," Yugi replied. "You of all people should appreciate that."

"Yugi," the spirit said, softly. His hand trembled in place on Yugi's shoulder, and Yugi could feel him striving to maintain his composure. Had his words moved him that much? Or was something else affecting him? Something to do with this place, perhaps? "Where shall I begin?"

"You can start by telling me just who brought me here," Yugi nodded, giving his partner an affirming smile. "That way I'll know who I'm up against."

"Up against?" the spirit asked.

"Yeah," said Yugi. "We're gonna fight our way out of here, right? And we'll do it together, just like old times. And at the end of it all, we'll find Joey, and Téa, and Tristan, and…"

"Yugi," the spirit spoke. "You brought yourself here."

Yugi was aghast. "What? I did? But, why would…?"

"Perhaps it would be best if I started from the beginning," the spirit suggested, before taking on a more melancholy tone. "For I saw the whole thing take place from within the Puzzle – from within you, Yugi."

"All right," Yugi agreed, nervously. "But I think I should probably sit down first." And so they sat together in the shade of a tree, Yugi listening intently as the spirit reluctantly narrated the events that had led them to this point.

"It started," the spirit swallowed, as though the tale had become stuck in his throat, "with a duel."

"Heh," Yugi ventured a chuckle. "That's usually how all our stories end."

"Yes," the spirit replied – his voice distant and reflective. "Yes, it is."

\--

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Chapter One: Falling Apart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or any of its characters. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi.
> 
> Whew. Sorry for the delay, but I'm back from Scotland at last – won't bore you with the details. Also had to take my PC to be repaired, so I've been without internet access for a couple of days.
> 
> I'd like to thank all my reviewers for their kind words, and here's hoping the story continues to please y'all. Let's also hope I don't accidentally write the whole thing in Scottish…
> 
> Och, sae withit further ado… Ya ken?

The purple-clad warlock brandished the staff in front of his chest; his eyes never left the imposing, heavy-set figure of the robotic menace that stood opposite him on the platform. Beads of sweat, which had crept cautiously onto the wizard's hooded brow, were abruptly burned away by the magical energies radiating from his weapon. Usually it felt lighter in his hands – hands that had the power to send forth a volley of innumerable deadly knives with only the twitch of his finger, or conjure up an illusion so remarkably terrible and lifelike that even the bravest of kings would be forced to kneel before him in humility. Hands that held such power typically had no difficulty wielding a staff – yet this time something was different; something was causing him to waver, to hesitate.

While this foe was indeed worthy of his concern – for he had underestimated the cyborg several times before, and knew him to be a perilous opponent when not taken seriously – they were not, the mage mused, the kind to incite such confusion and doubt. He could sense his master's anxiety within his heart; he could literally feel the pressure he'd been saddled with, as though walls of shadow were converging on him and he had but moments to decide between victory and defeat. But there was something else in there that worried him, and shook him to his very core. His master was reluctant to fight.

The Dark Magician turned away from Jinzo and looked up toward the looming figure of his master, who was busy scanning the cards at his disposal as though striving to formulate a strategy. The dark mage knew better, however, for he could sense the dilemma that his master was struggling with. He was trying to stall, to avoid a direct attack; he wanted to give his enemy a chance at victory. But why? What reason was there to risk losing the duel? Perhaps, as a mere pawn in this game, he had no way of comprehending his master's thoughts, but in this battle victory seemed as crucial as ever. What unseen circumstances could have possibly arisen to give license to his master's doubts?

His master gazed down upon him; there was no reassurance evident in his face, no confident gesture or knowing sparkle in his amethyst eyes. This was not the same man he had dueled under so many times before. In every other conflict, even when victory seemed beyond their reach, he had remained steadfast in his belief in the heart of the cards. Right now, he didn't even seem to be thinking about his cards – only his opponent. The faded faces surrounding him looked familiar, but even they seemed far from his mind. The mage wished he could speak out, encourage his master to fight with what he'd previously shown to be a boundless will – but being merely a game piece, he could not. All he could do was follow his master's instructions to the letter, regardless of his personal feelings.

The Dark Magician lowered his staff, gave his master a steely glance, and wagged his finger deliberately. It was all he could do to convey what was in his heart – what was in the heart of the cards.

There followed a slight pause, as the action seemed to register with his master, and then came the command: "Dark Magic Attack!"

The mage whipped around, his robes spiraling majestically about his body, and pointed his palm at the mechanical monstrosity. With only a thought, he drew into his hand a ball of the purest black magic and cast it mercilessly toward his enemy; Jinzo didn't even have time to flinch before the ball struck his chest, sending jagged, fiery streaks through his armour and crushing his body from within. In mere moments, he had been blown asunder by the sheer force of the assault, leaving only a paling plume of purple smoke in his wake. The Dark Magician nodded proudly to himself. His master had not faltered – yet.

"Hey, c'mon Yuge!" Joey scoffed dryly, drawing Yugi's attention away from the tabletop they were playing on. "You don't gotta take it that seriously, do ya?"

"Huh?"

"You're yellin' out your attacks like we're in some kinda tournament sponsored by Kaiba Corp or somethin'," said Joey. "Honestly, you'd think your Egyptian God Cards were on the line the way you're actin'."

"I…" Yugi blushed. He had been so drawn into the game, so lost in the moment, that he'd almost completely forgotten where they were. "Sorry, Joey. I guess I can get a little carried away sometimes."

"When it comes to Duel Monsters," Téa piped in, setting her hands on the desk between them, "Yugi's deadly serious. Haven't you figured that out yet, Joey?"

"Yup!" Tristan snorted from where he stood by the window. "Yugi's poker face is second to none. Or should that be duel face?"

"Yeah yeah," Joey groaned. "He's a pro, and I'm a schmo. Now could you two please stop with the interruptin'? I'm tryin' to settle things with Yuge, and you guys are makin' it difficult to concentrate here."

"Now who's taking things too seriously?" said Téa, taken aback.

"Yeah!" Tristan agreed, folding his arms in a disgruntled fashion. "Whenever I try my hand at a duel, you're always throwing me off with your running commentary, Joey. You know what they say? Payback's a b-…"

"Tristan!" Téa gasped. "Don't you dare say another word."

"Everyone's on my case today," Tristan muttered, eliciting more than a few chuckles from Yugi and Joey. "Would you just hurry up and finish your duel already?" He sighed, turning to look outside at the students wandering the grounds of the school. "Class is gonna start any minute."

Yugi smiled to himself. His previous adventures had seen him fighting fated conflicts with evil spirits, dueling deadly foes whilst the safety of the world lay in jeopardy. Yet, as exciting as all that had been, he felt truly happy to be able to sit down and play a harmless game with his friends in the comfort of their school. A game where nobody's soul was on the line, and he knew his opponent wasn't the type to cheat. On the contrary, Joey was perhaps the most honorable duelist he'd ever faced. Sure, he'd had a rocky start, but these days there was nobody Yugi felt he'd rather be up against than his best friend. It made for an exhilarating challenge, but most of all – it was fun. He didn't always get that from other duelists; most of them just wanted to make a name for themselves by beating the famed King of Games, the kid who had managed against all odds to win the three Egyptian God Cards; they weren't in it for the thrill of competition. In the end, they forgot it was just that – a game, to be enjoyed and cherished. But Joey, perhaps more than anybody else, understood this.

"It's your move, Joey," Yugi nodded, a slight apologetic note evident in his voice. He was winning by a wide margin, and he could tell Joey was struggling to maintain his focus. Not only that, but something else seemed to be bothering him – and Yugi had a slight inkling as to what it was. "Give me your best shot."

"Don't gimme no pep talk!" Joey shot back, angrily. "I'm gonna clean your clock, just you watch."

"Good luck pulling that off!" said Tristan, wryly.

"I don't need luck," Joey said, glaring at his pointy-haired friend out of the corner of his eye as he drew a fresh card from his deck. "Not when I have this magic card in my corner." Joey's fingers nimbly flipped over a card on his side of the desk, revealing upon it the image of a large, glowing hand reaching outwards. "I play Silent Fiend. That'll shut you guys up good and proper. Dig it! Yeeeah!"

"What's that do?" Téa chuckled as she regarded Joey's ecstatic response. "Aside from make you act like a total spaz, I mean."

"It allows him to summon a monster from his graveyard," Yugi explained courteously.

"Yup!" Joey exclaimed. "And I'm usin' it to bring back my Jinzo!" Grinning to himself, Joey slipped the topmost card off the slim pile representing his graveyard and placed it face-up on the desk. Jinzo was back in play. "Jinzo's back and he's ready to take revenge on your Dark Magician. Go Jinzo! It's your birthday! Go Jinzo!"

As Joey kicked back in his seat and began whirling his arms about triumphantly, practically punching Tristan in the side a couple of times, Yugi couldn't help but share in the joy his friend was experiencing. It had been a while since Joey had looked this happy; not just throughout the course of the duel, but for the past week or two it had seemed as though his despondency would never end. Ever since Mai had turned him down for that date a month ago, his character seemed to have shifted from the rough-and-ready, happy-go-lucky sort, to that of a more downtrodden demeanour. Yugi supposed that, since he had used up all his courage asking her out, he had no real means of regaining his spirit – except, it seemed, through dueling. He was just glad to be able to help in some small way; he didn't like seeing Joey hurt like that, and if dueling helped to take his mind off it, then so be it.

But, at the same time, he found himself deathly afraid of making matters even worse. After all, if he were to slaughter Joey in this game, it wouldn't exactly help to cheer him up; instead, it might just make him feel like even more of a loser. His grades had been slipping drastically; even their P.E. teacher was finding faults in his performance, which for Joey was quite unheard of. He was in an emotional slump, and right now Yugi felt as though it was up to him to drag him out of it, because he knew Joey would try to do the same for him were their roles reversed. When they'd started this duel, Yugi had assumed Joey just wanted to pass the time between lessons – but now he saw that he'd invested a great deal in this contest, a lot more than Yugi had anticipated. True, there were no cards on the line, and this wasn't a Shadow Game – but Yugi knew deep down that this duel was just as important as any other he'd fought, for his friend's feelings were potentially riding on the outcome. No matter what, Yugi couldn't allow himself to hurt his friend in any shape or form. For if he did so, even by accident, he would never be able to forgive himself.

"You okay, Yuge?" Joey asked. "You're lookin' pretty shaken."

"I'm fine," Yugi replied – Joey had no idea that he was merely worried about him. "Heh, I guess I'm just nervous about losing."

Joey raised an eyebrow, and then lowered his head – his face now partially shrouded by his plentiful blonde hair. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Um. Nothing?" Yugi blinked. "Just, you know, the slightest mistake and I could…"

"Hey! Don't you patronise me!" Joey snarled, bitterness seeping through his words. He sighed, a guttural rasp punctuating the break in his speech. "If you lose, it'll be because I was the better duelist – not because you made a mistake."

"I agree, Joey," Yugi practically whispered. "I just… I don't want you to lose heart."

"What's there to lose heart about, huh?" Joey spat. "I've been in worse situations than this before, and I've beaten the odds." He was referring, of course, to the duel – but Yugi wondered if he weren't also casting this remark further afield, perhaps in the direction of Mai and his schoolwork. "Like when I won the money for my sister's operation."

"Dude, Yugi gave you that money," Tristan remarked, earning icy stares from everyone in the group – including Yugi. "What? I'm just saying. Yugi's the one who won the cash. Give credit where credit's due."

"Pfft," said Joey, choosing to ignore Tristan. "Heart. I got more heart than all o' you combined. Joey Wheeler can take anything and he'll keep gettin' right back up again. Just like my trusty Jinzo!" Almost as though someone had hit a switch inside his brain, Joey once again exhibited the same brash confidence that he'd shown before Yugi had chosen to speak so clumsily. "And with his help, I'm gonna take out your Dark Magician. Then you'll be the one to lose heart, Yugi."

"Joey," Yugi said, softly. He would have expected to hear such words from someone like Seto Kaiba, not his best friend – not Joey. This duel wasn't about having fun anymore. It was about Joey finding it in himself to defeat whatever it was that had shattered his pride; it was about him moving beyond Mai's rejection of his advances, and mending his broken heart; it was about excelling in the one area he'd yet to flunk in. That duel, the one for Joey's spirit, wasn't taking place on the desk before them; it was happening within him, and for all Yugi knew, Joey was losing – the same way he was losing their harmless little game. It seemed like there was nothing he could do to help. "I'm afraid it won't be that simple."

"Oh yeah? Why not?"

"Because Silent Fiend summons monsters in face-up defense mode," he replied, reluctantly, "and prevents them from attacking."

Joey stared silently at Yugi, almost as if he'd been taken aback by this simple statement. Yugi wondered if he should've kept quiet. The last thing Joey needed right now was to be lectured on the workings of his own cards. But then, just as it seemed like he was on the verge of tossing his cards aside in a fit of rage, Joey cracked a knowing smile. "Who said anything about attackin'?"

"Huh?"

"I'm gonna use Jinzo to summon an even stronger monster!" Joey said, removing a card from his hand and displaying it proudly to the onlookers surrounding them. It was the Red-Eyes Black Dragon – a card that meant so much to Joey that it practically symbolised his friendship with Yugi. "My Red-Eyes is gonna fry you up good!"

"Red-Eyes?" Téa asked. "But that card's still weaker than the Dark Magician. Besides, don't you need to make two sacrifices in order to…"

"Téa?" Joey spoke, his eyes never leaving Yugi. "The men are duelin'. Don't interrupt, 'kay?"

"Wha…? Hey!" Téa stamped her foot on the ground, insulted. "I was just trying to…"

"Téa, it's okay," said Yugi. "I think Joey knows what he's doing."

"Really?" she grumbled. "And here I was thinking he was just being a complete jerk."

"Téa…" Yugi gulped. She didn't know about Joey's problematic love life, and so she had been less than sympathetic whenever he'd acted so sullenly toward her. Joey had come to Yugi in confidence, asking him whether or not he should take the plunge and ask Mai on a date. He had been afraid that, if Téa or Tristan had gotten wind of his feelings, he would've never heard the end of it – especially if things went sour between them. He'd made Yugi swear never to tell anyone, which prevented him from explaining what Joey was going through. If only Téa knew, he was sure she'd understand and forgive him. Instead, he had to sit by and watch them bicker. It pained him to do so, but he was bound by the oath to his friend – bound and gagged by it. "He was just kidding."

"Don't stick up for him, Yugi," Tristan cut in. "Joey's just a sore loser is all."

"I haven't lost jack!" Joey cried, slamming a card onto the desk. Yugi gasped, recognising it as the magic card – Soul Exchange. "I use this card to sacrifice one of your monsters, Yuge. And guess which one I'm gonna pick? It ain't exactly a tough choice, seeing as how it's the only one you got on the field."

"My Dark Magician…!"

"That's right!" Joey crowed. "Your Dark Magician is goin' straight to the graveyard, along with my Jinzo!" Solemnly, Yugi removed his favourite card from play as Joey did the same for his trap-defusing monster. With a triumphant laugh, Joey then replaced his Jinzo with the Red-Eyes he'd just mere minutes ago revealed. "And since any monster summoned using Soul Exchange is unable to attack until my next turn, I'll leave it at that. But don't think for a minute that you're safe; my Red-Eyes will be more than enough to take out whatever you got stored in your hand."

"Wow," Tristan commented, hoarsely. "The tables sure turn quick in this game, don't they? Joey now has one of his most powerful monsters in play, whereas Yugi doesn't even have a single card on the field."

"Gee! Ya think?" Joey snapped. "Here's an idea, Tristan. Why not go pester somebody else with your inane comments? Y'know, someone who actually enjoys your company?"

"Joey!" Téa's jaw practically hit the floor.

"I oughtta stuff those cards down your freakin' throat, man!" Tristan threatened, his fists clenching at either side of him. He too had sustained his fair share of verbal abuse from Joey recently – and unlike Téa, Tristan wasn't the type to just let it pass.

"I'd like ta see you try," Joey murmured.

"Tristan! Joey!" Yugi lunged instinctively between the two of them, preventing Tristan from making good on his promise. He couldn't physically hold Tristan back – he was short enough that even coercing Téa would have proven to be a trial and a half – but he had to do something to stop them from going at one another; they were his friends, after all. "Please, Tristan, Joey's just caught up in the moment. It's an intense duel."

"Yeah?" replied Tristan. "I don't remember him throwing insults at us like that when he was dueling at Battle City, or at Duelist Kingdom… In fact, come to think of it, he actually used to appreciate our support. But I guess those other duels weren't quiteas intense, huh?"

"I… I don't…" Yugi stammered.

"Get this guy," Joey smirked, thumbing his nose at Tristan. "He actually believes I ever gave a damn about his support. Lemme ask you somethin', Tristan. What's your support ever done for me? Huh?" He leered up at the three of them, who were busy looking on in shock. "What have any of you guys ever really done for me?"

Yugi felt his heart sink; things were clearly far worse for Joey than he had initially imagined. If he had allowed himself to lose all hope in not only himself, but in his friends as well, then something else must have been eating away at him. But what could it be? Was it his father? Yugi felt himself shiver, like a cold hand had clutched his spinal column; he knew about how abusive Joey's dad could be, even though he didn't like to talk about it. It was a miracle that Joey had turned out to be so unlike his father, so warm and full of vigour. But now, looking into Joey's creased brow where crevices of cruelty seemed to span the gulf between those hateful brown eyes, he could perceive traces of a hardened, sadistic man lying underneath that soft surface. He saw it and was terrified of what might become of his friend if he didn't do something to help. He had to do _something_.

"How can you say that!" Téa's voice was shrill, like a bird warning away predators. "After all Yugi's done! After all Tristan's done! We're your friends, Joey! We…"

"Please, Téa," Joey rolled his eyes. "Spare me the friendship speech, I've heard 'em all – and they're all equally as meaningless."

"I can't believe you…" Téa's lips continued moving, but the words failed her. As she turned to leave, Yugi felt his throat tighten; he wanted to go with her, to make sure she was alright, but he couldn't just walk out on Joey and Tristan – it would only allow them to let loose on one another. It would only cause more hurt. He couldn't handle that. He had to stay.

"Joey, you total…" Tristan began.

"Listen!" Yugi cried out. Already the other students had started to turn and look at them, wondering what all the commotion was about – however not one of them, it seemed, wanted to get involved. Yugi swallowed; it was hard, being the only person in the room who was trying to save their friendship from falling apart at the seams – especially when he couldn't tell Tristan the truth about Mai and Joey. "Both of you, please stop this… Joey, listen to me."

"Mmph," Joey grunted, his head cocked to one side.

"I understand what you're going through," Yugi continued. Joey shot him a look that seemed to act as a kind of warning, as though he was afraid that Yugi would blab their secret. But Yugi knew he would never do that; he couldn't possibly save their friendship by destroying their trust in one another. "But you can't just lash out at us; it'll only cause you more pain in the long run. Téa was right, we're your friends – and I know you still care about us, otherwise you wouldn't be playing Duel Monsters with me."

"Only reason I'm duelin' ya, Yuge," Joey confessed, "is so I can prove that I'm better than you… That I don't need you."

"You don't mean that…" Yugi's eyes widened.

"I already know I don't need Téa, or Tristan, or Ma-…" Joey caught himself in mid-sentence. "Or any of the others. But like Tristan said earlier, it was you that won the money for my sister's operation. And ya gave it to me."

"Because you're my friend, Joey!" Yugi insisted. "Because I know you'd do the same if…"

"But you only won it because you managed to beat me," Joey continued unabated, as though Yugi hadn't said a word. "Because you were the superior duelist. That's the only thing stoppin' me from casting you aside like the rest of the lowlifes." He paused and grinned up at Tristan. "That means you, pal."

"Son of a…" Tristan threw his hands up in the air. "I've had it with you, man! Forget you, I'm outta here."

With that, Tristan was gone. Yugi hoped he'd left to find Téa, as he couldn't stand the thought of her crying in some dark corner with nobody to console her. However, as much as it pained him to think of Téa being on her own at a time like this, he couldn't just walk out on Joey. To do such a thing would be like confirming everything his friend had so spitefully said – that he didn't need them around anymore. But Yugi knew better; he knew that Joey needed him the same way he needed Joey. Somehow, he just had to show him.

"As I was sayin'," A shrug was Joey's only response to Tristan's moody departure. "The only reason I wanna duel you right now is so's I can show you that I can fight my own battles from now on – without you."

"That may be," said Yugi. "But in order to prove that, you have to duel me." He held his breath before speaking these final words: "And I don't want to duel you anymore."

"… What?" Joey's shock was almost palpable.

"You ask the impossible, Joey," Yugi turned his eyes to the floor. "We used to duel each other for fun. No stakes whatsoever. But these are the highest stakes I've ever had to face. If I win this duel, you'll hate me. If I lose this duel, you'll end our friendship. That's what you're saying." His voice had grown weak, and he mustered all his strength in order to bolster his confidence and drive his point home. "Either way, I lose my best friend!"

"What the heck does my friendship even mean to you, anyway?" Joey demanded. "Look at how I treated Téa, and Tristan. Is that how a friend acts? Huh? Tell me, Yuge!"

"I'll tell you how a friend acts!" Yugi replied emphatically. "He gambles everything, even his own safety, for his friend's happiness! That's what you did when you risked your own life trying to save my Exodia cards. That's what I did for you when you were under Marik's control, and both our lives were in danger."

"Don't try and drag up ancient hist-…"

"A friend is someone who'll stand by you no matter what!" Yugi cut him off. "You've always stood by me, Joey… Haven't I stood by you, too?"

"Does it look like I'm standin' by you?" Joey glowered, shifting back and forth in his seat in discomfort. "Seems to me that I'm stabbin' ya in the back. Anybody can see that's hardly an act of kindness."

"You're not stabbing me in the back, Joey," Yugi said. "You're betraying yourself."

"What's that?"

"You're hurting, and I can understand why," Yugi didn't want to go into specifics – not in front of so many people. Joey's broken heart was Yugi's little secret, and it seemed it was up to him alone to mend it for him – if only he could. "And because of it, you feel like everybody else should be hurting. But that's not the way Joey Wheeler works. Not the Joey I know."

"And what would Joey Wheeler do, then?" Joey asked, with an honest curiosity. "Run cryin' to my good pal Yugi? Or better yet, to my mom, or my little sister? Can't exactly do that now, can I?" His voice started to break, although he tried to mask it with a sharp cough. He sat up straight and addressed Yugi as though the previous conversation hadn't even taken place. "So are we gonna duel or what, pal?"

"Not if you insist on putting our friendship on the line," Yugi shook his head.

"Damn it, Yugi!" Joey yelled, raising his fist in the air as if to strike out at him. Yugi didn't flinch; he wasn't afraid, for he knew that if Joey still cared for him, he would never willingly harm a hair on his head. Joey stared at his outstretched hand in surprise; Yugi wondered if he was thinking about his father. "I… I just need you to duel me. I need to know there's one thing in this world I can still do right."

Yugi hesitated. In his entire dueling career, he had never backed down from a challenge. But here, in the most unlikely of places, he was contemplating refusing a duel. A duel against Joey, no less. If he didn't know the stakes, he would have thought himself crazy. In the past, his friendship had only strengthened his resolve. Now it made him weak – prevented him from making an all-important choice. If he played this duel out, right to the bitter end, where would it lead them? Would they still be friends? Or would Joey abandon him as he was threatening to do so? Would it drive Joey into deeper pits of despair? How could he possibly make this kind of decision alone?

_You're never alone, Yugi._

_Spirit!_ Yugi beamed, as he heard the voice of his other self speaking to him through the Millennium Puzzle. _What should I do? Joey's at his wit's end… He wants me to-_

_Yes. I have been observing._ The spirit sounded deep in thought. _He has been spurned by the one he loves, has he not?_

_Yeah…_ Yugi admitted. He never could keep a secret from his other self – even one of Joey's. _And now he's taking it out on the rest of the gang._

_It's almost frightening… how swiftly love turns to hate._

_Um._ Yugi blinked. _I guess you could say that, yeah._

_Yugi. You must finish the duel._

_Huh?_ Yugi was surprised by the spirit's resolve. The way he said those words – it was as if he knew it was the only solution. _But spirit, what if he loses?_

_He probably will._

Yugi cringed. _But don't you see? That's exactly why I can't do it._

_You've beaten him before, haven't you?_ Even now, in this moment of crisis, the spirit's pride in his host shone through. _So what's stopping you?_

_It was different those other times!_ Yugi replied. _Joey wasn't in the state he's in now. It'd be like kicking him when he's down._

_If you ask me,_ said the spirit of the Puzzle, _Joey's the kind of person who… Oh, how do you say it? Takes a kicking but keeps on…?_

_It's licking, actually, _Yugi half-smiled._ Takes a licking but keeps on ticking._

_Licking?_ The spirit was audibly disgusted. _I'll never get the hang of these modern idioms._

_Don't get me wrong, Joey's tough,_ Yugi suppressed his laughter; Joey was still sitting in front of him, and it would do no good whatsoever to make him think he was laughing in his face. _But right now, I think he's already taken as big a licking as he can stand. You don't know how painful heartbreak can be._

_I'm sure I can imagine_, the spirit replied, confidently. _Anyway, Yugi, think about it this way. To refuse this duel would hurt Joey far more than defeating him ever could. For some people, the only way to release their pain is to fight. Whether they win or lose doesn't matter. It's a kind of catharsis. If you care for him, you will let him fight you. Be there for him, Yugi. Duel your friend with all your heart._

_Spirit,_ Yugi touched the Puzzle hanging around his neck, his eyes closing momentarily as he thought the words that came from within his heart. _Watch over me, won't you?_

_Of course, partner._

"Very well, Joey," Yugi nodded, getting back into his chair and picking up his cards. "I will duel you. And what's more, I'll win!"

"Now that's more like it!" Joey clasped his hands together and flexed his arms, the harsh sound of his knuckles cracking setting Yugi's teeth on edge. "Get ready, Yuge, 'cause I'm gonna use my Red-Eyes to wipe out your life points – and kick you ta the curb!"

Yugi stared horrified at the solitary monster card on the field. Joey planned to use the card that best represented their bond to sever all ties between them. He was going to set their friendship ablaze with the dragon that had once meant so much to them both.

_Spirit…_

_Yes, Yugi?_

_I'm afraid. I'm afraid to lose him._

_I'm here, partner. I'll always be here. Whether he is or not._

\--

END OF CHAPTER ONE


	3. Chapter Two: Departure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or any of its characters. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi.
> 
> Back again with the third chapter. This one's a little longer than usual, since I decided to cram two chapters worth of story together. Hope it doesn't suffer for it. I guess I should apologise for not revealing the secret behind Yugi's predicament yet, although I'm sure you won't have to wait long to discover it. Some of you might even have figured it out already. Shh, don't spoil it for anyone.
> 
> Thanks again for your reviews. It's always fun to hear your responses, be they positive or negative.
> 
> **Kate **– You said you got lost after the "first bit", and asked me to explain where we are. I assume by the "first bit" you're referring to the prologue. The prologue, with Yugi wandering through the forest and all that stuff, actually takes place after what you're reading in chapters one and two – which both take place at the Domino High School before Yugi is transported to the other place. That bit at the start of chapter one with the Dark Magician and Jinzo battling it out was sort of a trick I was playing on the reader to get them to think we were still in another world, only to surprise them by revealing it to be an ordinary tabletop duel, which comes to life in Yugi's mind and personifies a lot of his concerns regarding his friendship with Joey.
> 
> Anyway, hope that clears everything up. If not, feel free to vent at me!

Yugi wet his lips, his tongue lodging itself in the corner of his mouth as he studied his cards intently. For perhaps the first time in his life, he was fighting a duel that he neither wished to win or to lose – so how was he supposed to make the right decisions? As much as he believed in the heart of the cards, he had invested an equal amount of trust in the heart of his friend – and now Joey's heart seemed cold, unyielding to his sympathy. Uncertainty made its nest within Yugi's ribcage, lightly clawing its way up through his chest and toward his throat. The Millennium Puzzle seemed heavy around his neck, almost as though it had been filled with doubt, suffocating the confident spirit that dwelled within. He adjusted his collar, suddenly feeling quite hot, and refocused his thoughts on the game. His life points were at 4000, while Joey's dwindled at a measly 1500. The advantage was his – but what was he going to do with it?

"Hurry up, Yuge," Joey urged. "My Red-Eyes ain't gonna wait all day for you ta make your move. Unless that's your plan, o' course. Stall for time until class starts up, then you get out of havin' to duel me."

"You know I wouldn't do that," Yugi replied, although the thought had briefly crossed his mind. "It's just hard to think when I'm so worried…"

"Worried?" Joey snorted. "You don't gotta worry about me, pal. I've never felt better. I'm finally seein' things clearly. My old man always said I had my head up my…"

"I never said I was worried about you," said Yugi. Joey was idly drumming his fingers on the desk, his legs having been hoisted up onto a nearby chair as he regarded Yugi with a morose and slovenly posture; it was as if he didn't care one way or the other what Yugi was feeling. Yugi wondered if his father often sat in such a manner. "I'm worried about my friends. About Téa and Tristan."

"So, what? Now I'm not your friend?" Joey asked, making no attempt to mask his surprise.

"That's what you want, isn't it Joey?" Yugi replied. He had to strain his voice to make the act seem more authentic; no doubt the spirit of the Puzzle could have pulled this off effortlessly. "To be my opponent – my enemy."

"… O' course," Joey said. "How else am I supposed to prove I'm better than you?"

"Exactly," Yugi closed his eyes, so that he could be spared the anguish of having to look upon his friend's face as he continued: "If that's what you want, then so be it. We'll be enemies, Joey. For the duration of the duel, anyway." At last, he opened his eyes. Joey had clearly been shaken by his words, despite his best efforts to hide it; the incessant drumming of his fingers had ceased altogether, and his measured, cocky expression had receded to a faint frown. "If it's what you truly want, that is."

Joey stared slack-jawed at him, as though he expected Yugi to immediately retract everything he'd just said. But when he didn't, Joey was forced to merely clear his throat and reply, "That's what I want, Yuge."

"Okay then," Yugi swallowed, drawing a fresh card from his deck. "Let's duel!"

_I sure hope I'm not just making things worse,_ Yugi thought to himself as he sifted through the cards at his disposal. _I don't really want Joey to be my enemy._

_If you wish to be his friend, _the spirit's voice pervaded his mind, _then for now, you must remain enemies. After you have dueled one another, I'm sure he will come around._

_What makes you so certain anyway, spirit?_ Yugi implored his other self.

_Once you win, he will realise just how much he is mistaken,_ the spirit explained. _That he is wrong to treat you and the others this way. Besides, Joey doesn't seem to place as much importance on victory as others might._

_Not usually… But then, Joey isn't exactly in a normal frame of mind._

_What are you saying, Yugi?_ the spirit asked.

Joey seems determined to beat me, Yugi replied. Not just duel me, but to win against me. I don't know why, but it's like he feels that unless he wins… he's beneath me. Not just as a duelist, but as a person. Yugi… You know that isn't true. Joey's a worthy human being. Yeah, Yugi nodded. I know that. But right now, he doesn't. "I play…" Yugi hesitated. His fingers had been poised over the card marked Chosen One, however after his discussion with the spirit of the Puzzle he decided instead to alter his strategy. "… Mystical Elf, in defense mode!" He placed the card depicting the blue-skinned elf with the long, golden hair onto the field. "She will shield my life points from your monster's attack."

_Yugi! That's the wrong move!_

"Nice," Joey smirked, oblivious to the spirit's protestations. "Of course, my Red-Eyes'll have no trouble blowin' her away."

"Perhaps," said Yugi, innocently. "In the meantime, I'll place this card face-down and end my turn." He withdrew another card and set it down behind his Mystical Elf. "Your move, Joey."

"Fine by me," Joey replied, confidently.

_Yugi, why didn't you use Chosen One? You had the perfect opportunity to destroy his Red-Eyes._

_I couldn't do it,_ Yugi admitted to the spirit. _It was too risky._

_If you believe in the heart of the cards, there is no risk! _the spirit rebutted.

_It's not that,_ said Yugi. _I'm sure Chosen One would have worked, but… I couldn't risk destroying his Red-Eyes. Not yet, anyway._

_Why not?_

_That card,_ Yugi went on,_ represents the bond that Joey and I share. It symbolises Joey's identity as a duelist. It means everything to him. To us._

_I see,_ the spirit replied. _If you destroyed it, it would be like shattering that bond. But Yugi, can't you see that you must-_

_No, spirit! I can't just attack one of my friends like that!_ Yugi felt his chest rise and fall as he argued with his other half. _If this was an honorable duel, and Joey wasn't in such a state, maybe I could do it. But not here… Not now._

_You must not hold back,_ the spirit insisted. _You must fight as hard as you can. It's what he wants you to do._

_But it's not what I want to do!_

_Yugi,_ the spirit sighed. _Would you prefer it if I were to take control and duel him in your stead?_

_No,_ replied Yugi. _Trust me, spirit. I can do this without destroying Red-Eyes – without severing our bond._

_As you wish, partner._

"I set this card face-down," Joey announced, slapping a card onto the desk, "before attackin' your Mystical Elf with my Red-Eyes Black Dragon! Now she's bound for the graveyard!"

"Hold on," Yugi interjected, flipping over his own face-down card. "I play this: The Reliable Guardian!"

"The wha?"

"Reliable Guardian allows me to add seven hundred defense points to one of my monsters for the duration of a turn," Yugi explained, "which means, once I add those to my Mystical Elf's defense, you lose three hundred life points."

Joey's face was a blank slate. Yugi cringed. He expected Joey to explode in a fit of uncontrollable anger, slamming his fist onto the desk so hard that it would send their cards flying in every direction. But instead of this, he began to snicker – then chuckle – then laugh uproariously. "Ahahaha! I knew it! I just knew it!"

"You knew… what?" Yugi could already feel the spirit mustering a long, drawn _out 'I told you so_'.

"That you ain't half the duelist ya used to be," Joey scowled, his mood suddenly changing. "It's true, Yuge. Ever since the last time you saved the world – while I tagged along like an obedient puppy dog, o' course – you've done nothin' to improve your skills. You let 'em go to waste."

"That's not true!" said Yugi, defensively. He could feel the spirit's disapproval churning away in the back of his mind, and decided instead to hold his tongue on the subject of his skill. "Joey, we saved the world together – as a team!"

"You always say that," Joey muttered. "But in the end, you're the one who gets to take credit for everythin'. You get all the powerful cards, and you win all the tournaments. Have you any idea what it's like to come home after one o' your adventures completely empty-handed? No, I guess you don't. Because you're Yugi, keeper of the Millennium Puzzle… an' I'm Joey Wheeler, with nothin' better to do than to help you out.

"How would you like it," he continued, "if you got home after one o' your adventures, and your grandpa was there waitin' for you, drunk as a skunk, and he said 'Gee, Yugi, you been gone a long while! There's been nobody to clean up after me, or make me dinner, or bow to my every freakin' whim! You just up and left, like you ain't got no responsibility toward me! Who do you think you are, anyway? I'll tell you! You're nobody! You're no good, just like your mother!' And then, once you tell 'em how you were savin' the world with your friends, he says 'Oh yeah? And whaddya got to show for it, huh?' And that's when you realise – you've got nothin'."

"Joey," Yugi mouthed, his voice stolen away by Joey's emotional outburst. It finally made sense; Joey wasn't tired of living in his shadow – he was sick of his father seeing him there. At that moment, Yugi knew he would've given anything to trade places with him and make sure his friend would never again have to suffer such abuse. But he couldn't. It seemed there was so much he could not do for Joey, and it tore his heart to shreds. "I wish I could help…"

"You can help me by losin'," Joey replied, his face hidden beneath his fringe. "After I win this duel, I can prove I'm not a total screw-up. No matter what Mai thinks of me; no matter what my pops thinks of me; no matter what _you_ think of me, Yuge." With that, he revealed yet another magic card. "This duel is _mine_."

Yugi immediately recognised the card. "Stop Defense!"

"The old Yugi woulda seen this comin'," Joey feigned disappointment. "Now your Mystical Elf switches into attack mode, and you lose sixteen hundred life points due to my attack!"

Yugi stared wide-eyed at the cards before him. Perhaps it was due to the spirit's influence, or perhaps it was just because of his overactive imagination, but for a moment he could literally see the monsters within the cards come to life. Joey's Red-Eyes spread its ebony wings and took flight across the wooden wasteland of the desktop, its nostrils flickering lividly as it sought out its target. Upon spotting the innocent elf maiden, the dragon shrieked – and for one inexplicable moment, Yugi thought of Téa – and let loose a barrage of fearsome fireballs from its malevolent maw. The Mystical Elf could only stare in horror, her hands permanently clasped in silent prayer, as the fires overwhelmed her – tearing the blue skin from her bones and rendering her but a charred mass on the floor. The Red-Eyes Black Dragon bellowed triumphantly, and Yugi was sure he could smell its odious breath – like how he imagined sulfur or brimstone might reek.

_Yugi… Are you alright?_

_I'm fine, spirit,_ Yugi replied. _But now I realise why I have to destroy Joey's Red-Eyes._

_Oh? _the spirit didn't sound too surprised._ And why is that?_

_Because,_ Yugi went on, _it no longer represents our friendship. Not to Joey, anyway._

_Then what does it represent to him?_

Yugi watched Joey's face – saw the delight he took in destroying Yugi's monster – and then answered. _His father. It represents his father._

_Very well, partner, _the spirit spoke, knowing exactly what it was Yugi meant._ Then do what must be done._

"It's your move, Yuge," Joey sneered as he watched Yugi reaching for a new card. "For all the good it'll do ya."

"I activate this card!" Yugi announced with authority. "Chosen One!" He placed the card face-up on the field. "Now I select one monster card from my hand, along with two other cards – and you get to pick one of them."

"Pick one?" Joey mimicked.

"Yes," said Yugi. "If you pick the monster, then it is special summoned to the field while the other two cards go to my graveyard. But if you pick one of the other two cards, then they all get sent to the graveyard – including my monster card."

"I get it," Joey rolled his eyes as Yugi offered him the three cards in question. "You're hopin' the heart of the cards will pull you through. Well lemme tell you somethin', pal…. There _ain't_ no heart in these cards. I'm livin' proof." He allowed his words to sink in before grasping one of the cards. "So get ready to send all three of these babies to the graveyard!"

He pulled his selected card from Yugi's outstretched hand.

"No… No way!" Joey gasped.

"I'm afraid so," Yugi said. "You drew my Summoned Skull!"

_Excellent work, Yugi!_ the spirit congratulated him. Yugi could sense the pride radiating from the Puzzle. _But be careful, he still has a-_

"Summoned Skull, attack his Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Yugi's eyes were ablaze as he called the move. Once again he had forgotten that such commands were unnecessary – that this was no hi-tech duel – but his desire to save his friend from despair had driven him to cry out. For he could not contain the anger – the sheer, irrepressible fury – that he now felt toward Joey's father. If sacrificing every card in his deck meant that Joey would be rid of his corruptive influence, he would gladly have done so. "Wipe him off the face of the field! Destroy him!"

"Don't get ahead o' yourself there," Joey scoffed. "You just activated my trap."

"What? Trap…?" Yugi was in shock – but it had been right there in front of him the whole time; he had been blinded by his anger. Joey flipped over the face-down card he had placed on his previous turn and showed Yugi just what was in store for him. "Skull Dice!"

"Correct!" Joey produced a shiny red die from his pocket, enclosing it within his fist and shaking it casually. "I have a feelin' we'll be sayin' guh-bye to your Summoned Skull in one quick roll of the dice." He cast the die across the desk, where it gradually came to a standstill right underneath Yugi's nose. "A two! That cuts his attack points in half! Man, could things get any worse for ya? I don't think so."

Yugi winced. Joey was right, in ways he couldn't even hope to imagine. Now he had 1150 life points, while Joey's score remained steadfast at 1500. He was losing both the duel and his best friend. What was he supposed to do?

_Yugi…_

_I know, I know!_ Yugi sighed inwardly. _If I'd used Chosen One in the first place, I wouldn't be in this mess._

_I wasn't going to say that, _the spirit assured him.

_But it's true,_ said Yugi. _How could I let this happen? Joey… I want to help him, but I…_

_Be strong, Yugi, _the spirit encouraged. _Right now, Joey needs you to believe in both him and yourself – and to believe in the heart of the cards. Stand up for yourself; do not back down for an instant. Show him your strengths, plentiful as they are, and reveal the weaknesses of his father. Then he will remember why he cares for you so._

_Spirit… What if it doesn't work? What if I lose him?_

_You cannot afford to ask that, _the spirit replied._ Finish your turn, and press on. And remember that I am always with you._

"I set these two cards face-down," Yugi nodded resolutely, "and I end my turn."

Joey drew – and his eyes lit up like bulbs. "Oh man. This is too perfect!" he whooped, his lips peeling back into a slow, sadistic grin. "I play this card – Monster Reborn!"

"No!"

"And I use it to bring back your Summoned Skull!"

_Yugi, have faith…_

"And now I play Polymerization, so that I can combine both my Red-Eyes and your Summoned Skull…" Joey searched frantically through his deck in order to find the appropriate fusion monster card, "… in order to summon the Black Skull Dragon!"

Dismayed and disarrayed, Yugi could only watch helplessly as Joey replaced the two high-level monsters with this new, seemingly invincible foe. The Black Skull Dragon had more than enough attack points to beat Yugi twice over, and from the look in his eyes Joey knew it. There was something like awe in his youthful features, as though he couldn't believe what he'd managed to do. He had Yugi on the ropes; with just a single attack, he could end this duel – and their friendship – forever.

After what seemed like an eternity, Joey spoke.

"Black Skull Dragon…" he murmured distantly, before raising his voice in order to add the final nail in the coffin. "Attack his life-points direc-…"

RRRRRIIIIIINNNGGG!

The tinny, tumultuous sound of the bell resounded throughout the school, drowning out Joey's voice completely. Yugi nearly fell off his chair in relief. "I guess class is starting. We'd better put this away before the teacher…"

_Wait a minute,_ he thought._ Why does the bell sound so different?_

"What…?" Joey was frozen in mid-celebration. "What's going on?"

"Joey!" Yugi had to yell over the racket the bell was making. "We'd better finish this duel later! Téa and Tristan should be back any…"

Then, it struck him; the bell wasn't stopping. It just carried on and on, in one long, continuous loop; the school bell wasn't supposed to do that. It was also far too loud – so loud, in fact, that Yugi could already feel the telltale throb of a headache swelling in his cranium. Then he noticed that all the other students were filing their way out through the door as if being led by some invisible conductor.

"It's the fire bell!" Yugi declared. "C'mon, Joey, we'd better leave these here!"

"Which idiot scheduled a freakin' fire drill at a time like this?" Joey growled, kicking his seat back into the desk behind him and standing up. "I thought we just had one of these last month!"

"We can't pick and choose the time, Joey," said Yugi, secretly thankful for the unexpected interlude. "Otherwise there'd be no point."

"Well I ain't leavin' until we finish the duel!" Joey stated firmly.

"What?" Yugi blinked. "Joey, we'll get in trouble if…"

"I'm one turn away from winning this thing!" Joey insisted. "Don't chicken out just 'cause you're about to lose."

"I'm not chickening out!" Yugi grasped Joey's arm forcefully, taking him by surprise. "But we have to leave the building, otherwise they might punish us. What do you think they'd do if they found out we ignored the fire bell because we were playing Duel Monsters? They might take away our decks! Do you want to lose your cards, Joey? After all the effort you went to building up your deck?"

"I guess not," Joey grumbled, yanking his arm away from Yugi and storming out the classroom door. Yugi watched him go, and then turned back to the cards strewn across the desk. He stared at the Black Skull Dragon card, and recalled his vision of the Mystical Elf's destruction; he remembered being able to smell Red-Eyes' breath, and how it had seemed to burn his nostrils with its intensity. But in his mind, he no longer thought it smelled like sulfur or brimstone – after all, he had no idea what either of these things smelled like in the first place. No, now it smelled to him like something far more potent and deadly.

Now it smelled like alcohol.

\--

The fire bell continued to warble indistinctly; meanwhile, the entire school – both its staff and its pupils – had swiftly congregated outside the building. Each class had gathered into groups, monitored by their respective teachers. Yugi had since joined up with Téa and Tristan, while Joey had managed to lose himself amidst the milling crowds of antsy students.

"I'm worried about him," Yugi remarked. "I think his dad is putting too much pressure on him. He's got enough problems without having to worry about his father's." And then, of course, there was the whole Mai issue – but he wasn't about to reveal that factor. Not after he promised to keep it a secret.

"That's no reason to take it out on us," said Tristan, standing next to Téa. "Especially Téa. Man, that was _not_ cool." Yugi couldn't exactly disagree. Téa had always been an invaluable friend to the three of them; her support had seen them through even the roughest of patches.

He remembered the incident at Duelist Kingdom, when he had felt his whole world come tumbling down around him after the spirit of the Puzzle almost sent Seto Kaiba to his death. At the time, he had been so distraught that he could barely bring himself to speak – let alone duel. In fact, he had sworn to himself that he would never again play Duel Monsters, lest he risk doing something truly awful. He tried to shut out his friends, and had even prevented the spirit from taking control of his body; but despite all this, Téa had made a point of standing up for him. She didn't necessarily understand quite what he was going through – but of course, at the time, neither did he – yet she was still willing to go the extra mile to try and shoulder whatever burden lay before him. Now Joey was facing a crisis of his own, but instead of letting Téa demonstrate her friendship he had practically slapped her in the face. Tristan was right; it definitely wasn't cool.

"You okay, Téa?" he asked.

"I'll get over it," Téa nodded. Yugi didn't doubt it. She may not have been the strongest person he knew – not physically, anyway – but emotionally she was hardy beyond belief. "I just wish he would too."

"Téa," said Yugi, stepping forward and touching her hand softly. "Joey's hurting a lot right now – for many reasons. It may take him a while, but I'm sure he'll recover. We have to stand by him. All three of us do. We need to weather this storm alongside our friend."

"You're right," Téa smiled, gently squeezing Yugi's fingers. "Even if we end up getting a little wet in the process."

"I don't mind getting wet," Tristan said, sarcastically. "I'm more worried about being burned. That guy has one fiery temper."

"You're not kidding," Téa chuckled despite herself.

"It's true, he does," Yugi replied, his voice ponderous and reflective. He thought back to when Joey and Tristan used to push him around. Joey had seemed so scary back then, almost like a monster. Back then, there was no way he could have imagined that they would end up sharing such an inseparable bond – that he would look into the heart of the monster and see so much goodness within. Now, of course, he knew where all of Joey's anger originated from – his father, the real monster. "But I'd gladly allow myself to be burned by Joey's temper, if it meant showing him just how much I care. I'd carry those scars like I carry my Puzzle – with pride."

_Well said, Yugi._

_Heh… Thanks, spirit._

"Yugi," Tristan smirked. "You're one of a kind, man."

"What would we do without you?" Téa mused.

"You'd probably have a lot more free time on your hands!" Yugi grinned sheepishly. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Joey hovering over by the school gate. "Gimme a sec, okay guys?"

"Sure thing," Tristan replied.

As he walked on over to where Joey stood, Yugi stuffed his hands into his pockets and tried to look as though he was just minding his own business. To top it all off, when he reached the gate he feigned a surprised gasp. "Hey, Joey. I thought you'd be with the rest of the class."

"Whaddya want, Yuge?" Joey asked, without even so much as glancing over at him.

"I just felt like stretching my legs," Yugi lied, his voice awkwardly upbeat. "It can be pretty tiring just standing there in a huddle, y'know? I guess you're doing the same, huh?"

"Quit it," Joey groaned, clearly not taken in by Yugi's act. "I don't wanna talk to you."

"Okay, Joey," Yugi said, lowering his eyes. "I'll be over here with the others, then." Yugi turned around and started back toward where Téa and Tristan were chatting.

"Wait!"

"Huh?" He looked over his shoulder, and saw that Joey was now facing him with an unexpectedly anxious expression on his face. All traces of melancholy had been wiped clean; he didn't look mad or sullen – he looked like regular old Joey Wheeler. "What is it, Joey?"

"I…" Joey began. "What you said before, about us being enemies." He seemed almost nervous, as though it had been Yugi who'd flown off the handle earlier and not him. "Did you mean that?"

"Only for the duration of the duel," Yugi beamed, giving him the thumbs up, "and we're not dueling right now, are we?"

"I… guess not," Joey breathed a sigh of relief. "What about Téa and Tristan?"

"What about them?"

"They must be pretty ticked off with me," Joey suggested. "I know I would be."

"They forgive you, Joey," said Yugi. "We all have our bad days, from time to time."

"Yeah?" Joey snorted, a shadow passing across his face momentarily. "How come you never have 'em then, huh?" He shook his head and looked away. "Sorry, Yuge, I…"

"It's okay," Yugi replied.

They were both silent for a time. In the background, they could just make out a squad of cheerleaders who clearly weren't letting the fire drill cut into their practise time; their chanting somehow rose above the bothersome sound of the bell: "We got spirit, yes we do! We got spirit, how 'bout you?" Yugi stepped forward and took his place beside his friend.

"I have bad days all the time, Joey," he smiled wryly to himself. "The day my grandpa was kidnapped? Bad day. The day you were brainwashed by Marik? Bad day. The day I got bubble-gum in my hair? _Very_ bad day."

Joey spluttered. It had the makings of a laugh, Yugi thought wistfully.

"But you know what?" he continued. "Every time a bad day comes along, or a bad week, or even a bad month… I stay strong because I know there's gonna be a good day somewhere on the horizon that makes it worth all the pain and the misery." He looked over, and saw that Joey's face had lit up once more. "The day I got beat up by that bully while trying to protect you and Tristan sure seemed like a bad day at first… But it turned out to be the best day of my life."

"Yugi…"

"Just wait and see, Joey," said Yugi. "Your good day will come. And always, above all else, count yourself lucky that you don't have gum in your hair."

"Yugi," Joey repeated. The word seemed to catch in his throat, and Yugi got the impression he was struggling to hold back tears. "There's somethin' you should know. It's why I've been actin' like this."

"It's about your father, right?" Yugi nodded. "You don't have to tell me, Joey. I get it."

"No, it's not that," Joey said, looking askance at him. "Well, not exactly. It's about…"

"I say, hello there!"

Yugi and Joey span around, taken off-guard by this sudden interruption. They had been so drawn in to their conversation that they hadn't even noticed Bakura approaching them. Their pale-skinned classmate waved at them cheerfully, despite the fact that he was barely two feet away.

"Bakura!" Yugi acknowledged brightly. "Hey, how's it going?"

"I have to admit, I'm rather excited," he replied. "Don't you both find this all very thrilling?"

"Excited?" Joey frowned. "What, you don't got fire drills in England or somethin'?"

"Fire drills?" asked Bakura, scratching his head. "I don't understand."

"Yeah, you know," Joey shrugged. "They make ya wait outside doin' nothin' while some stupid bell rings for about five minutes. But then, I guess if you think cricket's exciting, you'll enjoy anything."

"Now that you mention it," said Yugi, rolling up his sleeve and looking at his watch, "we've been out here for over quarter of an hour. This must be the longest drill we've ever…"

"It's no drill, guys," Bakura interjected.

"What…?" Yugi and Joey asked in unison.

"The school's on fire," replied Bakura. "Can't you smell it?"

"No, I…" Yugi stopped himself in mid-sentence. He couldn't just smell it – he could practically taste it. It wasn't unfamiliar to him, either; his senses stirred in him the memory of being trapped in a burning warehouse at the unwitting hands of Bandit Keith, trying desperately to solve the Millennium Puzzle before it was too late. His lungs had been smothered with the stale stench of smoke; it was an unforgettably traumatic experience. And now, in the schoolyard, he could smell it – taste it – feel it all around him. _Fire_. Bakura was right! "Oh no! The school!"

"The teachers say the fire brigade should be arriving shortly," Bakura explained. Behind him, Yugi could see thin tendrils of smoke pouring out from a few of the open windows. "I certainly hope they can control it; I'd just gotten used to this place."

"It doesn't look that bad from out here," Joey shrugged. Then, a look of horror appeared on his face. "No…! No!"

Before Yugi or Bakura could say anything, Joey had bolted toward the burning building. He rushed past the cheerleader squad, who had long since ceased their peppy performance once they realised the gravity of the situation, and managed to slip behind one of the teachers who was busy trying to direct the students away from the danger zone. Having made it this far, he darted in the direction of the door leading inside.

"JOEY!" Yugi screamed. He rushed past Bakura, waving his arms frantically. It was too late; Joey had already made it into the building. "COME BACK! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"Yugi, what's wrong?" Téa asked as he stumbled by. It appeared that nobody else had witnessed Joey's mad dash. "Did you find Joey?"

"Téa! Tristan!" Yugi cried, pausing only for a moment. "The school's on fire, and Joey's inside! I don't know what happened, he just…"

"What?" asked Tristan, his eyes bulging in their sockets. "He's in there…?"

"We've gotta do something, guys!" Yugi implored them, sprinting onward. Within moments, both Téa and Tristan were by his side, all three of them heading toward the school in the hopes of preventing whatever crazy stunt Joey was trying to pull. It's likely they would have made it, too, if they hadn't been abruptly stopped in their tracks by one of the teachers.

"Hold it!" he growled at them, raising his burly arms up and catching Téa and Tristan by their shoulders. Yugi recognised him as one of the P.E. instructors; there was no way they'd be able to force their way past this guy. "Just where do you think you're going?"

"You gotta help us!" Tristan begged, writhing in the teacher's grip. "Our friend's still in there!"

"Please!" cried Téa. "You've got to get him out!"

"Ain't nobody in there, kid," the P.E. teacher replied. "We already took a headcount; everyone's accounted for. Now I can understand if you left somethin' inside, but it's way too dangerous to go in there right now."

"That's exactly why we need to get him out of there!" Tristan yelled.

"Can't you just check for us?" Téa demanded. Her voice, strong as it was, belied the sheer panic no doubt festering in her heart.

"Sorry," the teacher shook his head, stubbornly. "I've got strict orders not to let anyone inside until the fire department arrives. Now, if you would kindly get back into your groups…"

Yugi had heard enough. If they weren't going to be able to convince anybody to go inside and get Joey out, he was going to have to do it himself. As the teacher began ushering Téa and Tristan away from the entrance, Yugi crouched as far down as he possibly could and slipped between his legs. For once, his stature had become a blessing; the teacher had been so busy berating the others that he hadn't even noticed Yugi's presence. Rising up, Yugi launched himself over the concrete threshold between the schoolyard and the entranceway. He didn't look back, but as he plunged inside the school he heard what could only be described as a pained shriek from far behind him. It was not unlike the death cry he had heard as he envisioned the Mystical Elf's gruesome fate at the hands of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon.

It was Téa – she hadwatched him go.

\--

Flames licked at him from either side as Yugi dove haphazardly down the corridor leading to the classroom. He had been calling Joey's name ever since he got inside, and had thus far received no response. The more he searched, the more desperate he became – and the more desperate he became, the worse the fire seemed to get. At first he'd felt reasonably safe, as there had only been a faint blanket of smoke covering the ceiling in the entrance hall. But the further he progressed, the riskier it became.

The fire seemed to have spread rapidly, as though it had a mind and a will of its own. He could remember walking down this corridor on his way outside with Joey. Then, it had been spotless – a testament to the janitor's dedication. Now, the floor was cluttered with shards of blackened wood and scattered piles of rubble. Evidently the ceiling was slowly collapsing; that was never a good sign. The whole place was ablaze. It reminded him of his duel with Panik, when he had been forced to endure such intense heat that – had he been without the spirit of the Puzzle – he may very well have been fried to a crisp. This was much worse, however. At least, in Panik's case, the fire was under another human being's control. An evil and malicious human being, but a human being nevertheless. The fire that now ravaged the school had no master; it was free to cause as much destruction as it so desired. And it appeared to desire a great deal.

Perhaps worse than the fire, however, was the smoke. Yugi couldhandle the fire – it made its presence known with both its blistering heat and its unmatchedferocity, whereas smoke was silent and cold, not to mention impossible to evade. It clogged his throat and clouded his vision, stinging his eyes and forcing them closed. But he couldn't just close his eyes – not when Joey was in danger. What made things even worse was that Yugi knew Joey was in here somewhere, but because of the smoke he was having a hard time seeing. Joey could have been standing but a few feet away and he would have been totally oblivious to it. His only hope was the classroom. It was the one place he thought he might find him.

At long last, he came to it. The door had collapsed inwards, toppling over a number of desks in the process. Yugi strode over it, making sure to watch where he stepped. Rubbing his eyes, he peered through the gray curtain shrouding his sight. He couldn't see anything! The smoke was too thick! He reached forward and tried to steady himself on one of the desks, only to slip and fall onto an overturned chair. He moaned – lacking the strength to cry out – and immediately began to cough. The smoke's icy caress was overwhelming him; he suddenly found himself unable to fight the urge to sleep.

"Yuge?"

Yugi's head snapped up. It had barely beenlouder than a whisper, but it was enough to bring him back to his senses. "Joe…" he hacked. "Joey?" He scrambled over toward where the voice had come from. There, slumped against a desk with a dazed expression on his face, sat Joey – his eyes blinking in disbelief. "It's me, Joey… I'm here to save you."

"Yuge… Yugi…" Joey croaked, clutching something to his chest. "I had to… come back… I had to…"

"C'mon," Yugi clambered to his feet. Offering him his hand, he smiled weakly. "We've got to get out of here. Here, let me…"

"Yugi!" Joey hissed, grabbing Yugi's hand and pulling him down toward him. He was now close enough to see what Joey was holding. Duel Monsters cards – both his and Joey's. "You understand… right? The cards… I had to come back… for them…"

Yugi's brow creased. "Joey, your life is worth more than your deck. We can always buy more cards… But you? You're irreplaceable."

"But Yuge…" Joey wheezed, sliding them into his pocket protectively. "They're all… I have left…"

"That's not true at all," said Yugi, placing a supportive hand on his friend's shoulder. "You have your sister, Serenity. You have Téa, and Tristan… and you have me. Now c'mon, let's get out of here!"

"Seren… ity…" Joey mumbled as Yugi hoisted him up to a standing position.

"That's right, Joey," said Yugi, his voice straining as he led Joey out of the room as carefully as he could. "Your sister wouldn't want you to get hurt. She loves you."

"My sister…" Joey said, his eyes glazing over. "Serenity…" Then without warning, he toppled over face-first, landing sprawled out on the floor.

"Joey!" Yugi yelled, rolling him over onto his side; he seemed to have fainted. Before Yugi could try to wake him, however, he heard a prolonged groan – but it didn't come from Joey. Instead, it came from somewhere above his head. Yugi turned to look up at the source of the sound, only for the ceiling to give way. "No!"

Plaster rained down on him, followed by sharp fragments of wood. He raised his arm to shield his face, but it wasn't much help; the shards sliced through his jacket, cutting into the skin on his arm and causing him to let out an agonising scream. Soon, chunks of stone were pelting him in abundance, striking him so hard that he felt sure he would surely lose consciousness himself. One particularly heavy slab caught his shoulder with such force that he fell onto his back, his skull bouncing off the floor. Smoky fingers soon enveloped him as the final few scraps of debris landed on his chest, pinning him to the ground. He couldn't move.

"Joey…" he mumbled. His jaw throbbed every time he moved his lips. "Téa…" He had a feeling his left arm was broken. "Tristan…" He could feel blood trickling down the back of his neck. "Grandpa…"

_Spirit…_

But he wasn't about to give up just yet.

With every ounce of strength left in him, he began to inch his way across the floor, slowly sliding out from underneath the offending pile. At first, this proved difficult – his foot was wedged tightly between two pipes that had landed at angles to each other. He soon remedied this by slipping his foot out of his shoe, leaving the sneaker trapped regrettably beneath the rubble. Then, after about five minutes of the most arduous crawling he'd ever done in his life, he made it out. He'd done it. He was free.

However, Joey wasn't. He'd somehow managed inadvertently – for he was still out cold – to avoid the brunt of the avalanche; only the lower half of his body was coveredin debris. Yugi rubbed his brow, ignoring as best he could the sharp pains that flared up in his side when he bent down, and hooked his arms underneath Joey's. Dragging him to safety proved much easier than pulling himself out, but Yugi was worried nevertheless. He had no way of knowing if Joey had sustained any serious injuries.

"Joey!" he said, lightly slapping his friend across the face in an attempt to wake him. "Joey, can you hear me?"

For a moment, there was no response. "Yuge…?"

"Joey!" Yugi exclaimed, ecstatically. The severe pain he'd been feeling was replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief. "You're okay!"

"Yuge…" Joey murmured. "Let me come with you… to Duelist Kingdom…"

"Huh?"

"You gotta let me come… My sister… She needs me… I gotta duel… for my sister, Serenity…"

Tears rolled down Yugi's cheeks, and sizzled on the hot floor below. "Of course, Joey," he smiled, clasping Joey's hand in his. "We're a team."

"Yuge… You're my best… My best…" With that, Joey fell quiet again.

"Don't worry, Joey," Yugi said, more to himself than anything else. "We'll get out of here together." He was about to pick Joey up, when suddenly he noticed he wasn't wearing his Millennium Puzzle. In the ensuing chaos, it must have somehow fallen from around his neck. "Oh no…!"

He saw it moments later, hidden underneath a fallen ceiling tile. Its familiar golden sheen had given it away; even through all the dust and the fumes, it retained its unmistakable glow. Yugi limped over and scooped it up in its hand, thankful that it was still in one piece. His joy was short-lived, however, when the Puzzle refused to budge more than a few inches. The chain, which typically remained wrapped around his neck, must have snagged itself on something. Were he not desperate to save his friend's life, this would have been little more than a minor inconvenience. Instead, it had become a matter of life and death.

"I'm not leaving without you, spirit!" Yugi declared through gritted teeth. He tugged and he wrenched at the Puzzle, hoping the chain would become dislodged. It didn't. The representation of the Eye of Horus crafted into the pyramid's surface stared up at him with a painful indifference. "I won't leave you!"

Then, there was a noise not unlike thunder. At first, Yugi thought it came from within the Puzzle, but then he saw what had really caused it. At the end of the corridor, the walls themselves were starting to collapse. The fire had grown so out of control that it no longer wished to be contained within the school. Yugi froze with the Puzzle still in his hands, petrified. The flames began to encircle him as though trying to ascertain what his next move would be. He looked deep into the Eye of Horus and saw the fire reflected within it, and thought for a moment that he could hear the spirit calling out to him, even though he knew it to be impossible.

_GO! SAVE YOURSELF, YUGI!_

Yugi fell backwards as though he'd been shoved, letting go of the Puzzle in the process. He looked from the item, to Joey, and then back again. He knew what he had to do.

With Joey's arm wrapped around his shoulders, Yugi staggered his way through the inferno.

"Hang in there, Joey," he told him. "Once this is over, it'll just be yet another bad day."

\--

_…_ _I was able to get us both to safety …_

_… You would have been so proud of me …_

_… Joey was still unconscious when the firemen took him away …_

_… But you have to understand …_

_… I couldn't just leave you here …_

Yugi knelt beside the Millennium Puzzle, his lips trembling as he reached into the ring of fire that had now surrounded the sacred item. Its once mystic glow had dulled, and had been replaced by an unbelievably strong heat.

_… I fought my way back …_

_… Because I know I can't live without you …_

_… You're part of me, spirit …_

_… Now, please …_

_… Come back with me …_

He closed his eyes and bit hard into his lower lip as he finally found the courage to grasp the Puzzle.

_… I need you …_

The flesh on his fingertips peeled away the moment he touched it.

_… Forgive me for leaving you behind …_

He screamed.

_… Spirit …_

The fires embraced him.

\--

END OF CHAPTER TWO


	4. Chapter Three: Keepsake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or any of its characters. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi.
> 
> So yeah, hey.
> 
> I know, you're about ready to murder me several times over for not updating this thing, but I've got a perfectly good reason for neglecting you all.
> 
> I just haven't thought of it yet.
> 
> Nah, honestly, I just got totally sidetracked, and I feel so utterly stoopid for it. Hopefully, like me, you're just relieved that I eventually got back to working on it. More likely, however, you're in the middle of hunting me down and sticking something sharp between my shoulder blades. In either case, I hope you have the time to stop and read this, the latest chapter – and maybe, if you feel up to it, letting me know what you think. Preferably before taking my life.
> 
> I will warn you though; this is a pretty dark chapter – although I did my best to spice it up by sprinkling a little levity here and there. Basically, if my lengthy absence didn't make you wanna kill me, then this chapter will probably, as they say, seal the deal.
> 
> But above all, know that there is more to come. A lot more. If I don't get distracted by, say, a pretty rainbow in the sky.
> 
> This is only the beginning.

At school, Yugi often had occasion to hear the classic hypothetical "If a tree fell in the forest and no-one was around to hear it, would it still make a noise?" He had no doubt that, if one such tree had indeed fallen during the spirit's telling of his story, the noise generated – or lack thereof – would have been the envy of mutes the world over. The deep and steady tone of the spirit's voice seemed to suppress every other sound created by the forest; the rushing river became an uncanny whisper, and the whistling wind slowed its pace down to a gentle, soothing breeze.

Once he had described in detail Yugi's attempted rescue of the Millennium Puzzle, the spirit became deathly silent for a time, as though the effort it took to recount the events was almost as exhausting as experiencing them first-hand. Yugi rubbed at his shins anxiously, having hoisted himself up onto an exposed tree root, and waited impatiently for his longtime partner to continue; after all, he couldn't just leave the story hanging at such a critical juncture. It wasn't just that Yugi wanted to know what happened next. Quite the opposite, in fact. No, Yugi wanted him to continue because a small and subdued part of his subconscious knew precisely what happened next – and it made him very nervous.

Ever since the spirit had begun narrating the events leading up to his mysterious and unexplained entry into this otherworldly place, Yugi had started to recall certain things. Nothing so specific as memories – more like urges, feelings. Rushes of sensation that occasionally shot into his head as the spirit spoke. He recalled so vividly the veritable pit of sadness and sympathy that had opened within him while dueling Joey back in their classroom. At one point, his stomach tightened with anxiety and fear – fear that Joey's life might be in danger. And as the spirit drew to a halt in his tale, a searing bolt of electricity seemed to explode within Yugi's hands as though he could feel the skin on his palms blistering up into a sickly mass of bubbles, like when cheese is left in the oven too long. Yes, he even remembered burning up in that hallway. But perhaps more disturbingly than that, despite his best efforts, he could not visualise it in his mind's eye; it was as though it had happened to someone else, and his overwhelming sense of guilt had driven him to experience these dreadful phantom pains.

But it had really happened to him – all of it. He knew it to be true, just as he knew he was sitting there in that forest beside the spirit of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, who had now descended into deep thought; a spirit who had been made tangible, much to Yugi's bewilderment. If he wanted to, he could reach over and give his old friend a reassuring tap on the shoulder. This fact alone was enough to send Yugi's mind reeling; he could actually touch him! How was it possible? And why here? Why now?

The story had to continue. It was the only way he was going to get any answers. And boy, did he need answers.

"Then what happened?" he said, prodding the pharaoh's foot with his own.

The spirit stirred. "Hmm?"

"After I came back for you," said Yugi. "How did we manage to get out? I mean, the way you described it, it's as if there was no way we could…"

"Yugi," the spirit leaned into his partner's face, studying it carefully as though he had forgotten what it looked like. _Fat chance of that_, Yugi thought. _We both look practically identical._ "Are you sure you don't remember anything? Nothing I speak of seems familiar?"

"Well," said Yugi. "Not… really."

"Tell me the truth, Yugi," the spirit urged, his brow furrowing momentarily. "I may not be able to sense what you feel now, given that we no longer share a bond as we once did – but I am more perceptive than you might think."

"What do you mean?" Yugi flushed, already knowing where this was headed.

"I watched you closely while I was talking," the spirit explained. "I saw your concern as I spoke of Joey, long before I came to mention his woes." Yugi lowered his eyes, almost afraid of what the spirit might see in them now that he had been caught out. "I saw you despairing for his safety, as though you knew he was about to cast caution to the wind and risk his life for his deck. I saw you cradling your hands as, in my story, you reached into the fire to save me."

"Would you believe me if I said I was just really getting into it?" Yugi asked sheepishly. He looked up and saw the spirit's stoic and faultless features. If, Yugi mused, they ever found themselves barred from entering Duel Monsters tournaments, the pharaoh would probably be able to make a career out of staring contests. "I guess not, huh?"

"Like I said, I'm very perceptive," the spirit bowed his head, and Yugi thought he saw traces of a smirk; however, it was pulled from his lips as swiftly as it had appeared. "That is to say, we both are. I've always said that you have the heart of a warrior, Yugi. But you also have a warrior's senses."

"Senses?" said Yugi. The spirit had often reassured him in such a manner whenever Yugi was feeling despondent or helpless. At times, it seemed as though all he ever did was sit on the sidelines with the rest of his pals and watch the pharaoh take control of a duel – take it all the way to victory single-handedly. But, as the spirit routinely reminded him, the Millennium Puzzle would not have answered to an unworthy soul. The spirit chose Yugi because he could fight alongside him as an equal – as a friend. And he entrusted a great deal of faith in Yugi's abilities, both on and off the dueling field.

"You wouldn't just forget something like this," said the spirit. "The same way my own memories seem lost, they are still inside of me. They just need to be unlocked. I had hoped to one day discover my real name; all it would require is for somebody to remind me."

_Had hoped?_ Yugi thought, frowning. _What's that supposed to mean? It's as though he's given up…_

"You might say our memories are like a river," the spirit continued, motioning toward the stream ebbing its way through the forest just a few yards away. Ever since he had appeared, its urgent roar had been stifled, like a ferocious lion that had been briskly tamed against its will. The spirit seemed to have that effect on people; when he spoke, they listened. Apparently this also applied to the world around him. When he spoke, nature itself ceased its tumultuous turnings and paid full attention. "Newly formed memories course their way through our minds, eventually arriving at the ocean of our past where they mingle with all the other recollections. But just because some memories lie hidden beneath the surface, it doesn't mean that they are no longer there."

"Couldn't you have used a different metaphor?" Yugi asked, grinning. "I've kinda had my fill of rivers for today." The awful experience of following the river in the vain hope of finding his friends was still fresh in his mind – or, as the pharaoh might say, it still flowed through him. "But I guess what you're saying is, I should be able to remember everything?"

"You do remember," the spirit corrected. "The way you were reacting, it seems your heart is unable to forget."

"My heart remembers," said Yugi, stroking his hands absent-mindedly as though he was caressing invisible scars. "But my mind doesn't. Is that it?"

"That's it exactly," the spirit agreed. "Long before I rediscovered that I was once pharaoh, I already knew it to be true – in my heart, that is. It just took someone else to rekindle that notion inside my head."

"Then the only way to get me to remember," said Yugi, "is to tell me everything."

"Everything?" the spirit seemed taken aback.

"You still haven't explained how I got here," Yugi reminded him, "or what happened to make you… different. Did the fire somehow destroy our link? Was the Millennium Puzzle damaged?"

"Yugi," the spirit spoke softly once more. "There is little more to tell."

"So tell it, however little there is, and be done with it then!" Yugi insisted, though another of those feelings had sprouted inside his chest – an unnerving thing that tried to snatch the words right out of his throat. It was the strongest sense of foreboding he'd ever felt, and he'd had more than his fair share of those. "Tell me what happened after I came back for you!"

"I cannot…" the spirit closed his eyes.

"You can't what?" asked Yugi, grabbing him by the wrist. It felt so strange to be able to do such a thing, but he didn't let it deter him. "You can't tell me? Why not?"

"I simply cannot allow it," the spirit replied angrily, though it seemed to be aimed more toward himself than anything else. "No more than I can allow myself to harm a single hair on your head."

"Please, spirit!" Yugi begged, his voice breaking into emotional discord. When the spirit refused to answer, Yugi racked his brains trying to think of a way to get him to talk. Even when they still shared the same body, it would've proven difficult to get the spirit to chat openly if he didn't want to; now that they were separate beings, it was going to be an even greater challenge. "Spirit… Do you have any idea what it's like to have these feelings, but no memories to make proper sense of them? It frightens me. If you're worried about hurting me, then don't make me suffer this confusion."

"It would only make things worse if I told you," the spirit replied; his confidence in the decision remained unwavering.

"Spirit," Yugi whispered. Inside his chest, where that wellspring of doubt had been stirred, he was now bolstering his confidence and charging up his courage. If he was supposed to have the heart of a warrior, then now was the time to prove it. "You have no right to deny me this."

"What…?" the spirit was shocked, but not half as shocked as Yugi had been. That sentence didn't even sound like it had come from his mouth – it was more like something the pharaoh would say. Even his voice sounded deeper, more forthright. Now he knew what it was like to make people listen when he spoke. "But, but Yugi I'm only trying to protect you. That is my right – my one eternal right."

"If someone knew your real name," Yugi posed, "and then refused to tell you what it was, would you feel they had the right to do it?"

The spirit hesitated before answering, giving it a sufficient amount of thought. "If their reasoning was sound, yes."

"What kind of reasoning could possibly be good enough?" Yugi asked, exasperated. He lunged forward and squatted in front of the disheveled spirit, clasping his fingers together as if in prayer and hoping against hope that whatever still remained of their bond was strong enough to get his message across. "Spirit, be honest. If I learned your real name and then kept it from you, wouldn't you feel hurt? Even slightly?"

"… I…"

"Even if I told you I was trying to protect you?" he continued. "If it meant that you'd spend the rest of your days without a name – without the slightest shred of identity – just because I thought I knew what was best for you?"

A low, guttural gasp emerged from the spirit's throat, and he turned from Yugi to hide the emotion brewing in his eyes. Through gritted teeth, he gave his cut and dry answer: "Yes, it would hurt. But you are my partner. If you wished me to feel such pain, then I would gladly suffer."

"I'd never do that to you!" Yugi immediately cried, rushing forward and embracing the pharaoh. He was both saddened and touched by the spirit's sentiment, not to mention a little afraid. Had the spirit considered something like this before? That Yugi might someday seek, however inadvertently, to harm him? And that he'd be okay with it, just because it was Yugi? "Spirit, don't you get it? The last thing either of us wants to do is hurt the other."

"Yugi," was the spirit's breathless response, as his arm reached around and held the boy protectively. "It seems either choice will bring you much pain. How can I possibly decide?"

"It's up to you," Yugi whispered warmly, placing his head on the spirit's shoulder. He'd never been in this position before, and was surprised by how comforting it felt. It was like resting against the oldest tree in the forest. The spirit had a timeless aura that was both boundlessly strong and gentle at the same time. "The way I see it, I'm faced with two different kinds of pain. The kind I can deal with, and the kind I can't. If you don't tell me what happened, I've no way of knowing how to get over it – how to overcome the pain."

"You think if I told you," the spirit said, turning his head slightly; his chin found itself planted within Yugi's plentiful hair, forcing him into a broad smile, "then you would be able to deal with it?" He sighed, but it was no longer a completely hopeless sound. "Yugi, I don't know about this."

"That's just it," Yugi said. "You don't know. I don't know. And what we don't know won't hurt us, right?"

"Heh," the spirit sniffed, and a lock of Yugi's hair seemed to brush lightly against his lips in response. "Very well, Yugi. I shall give you your answers. I will tell you what happened. But you must promise to believe what I say, and accept it – no matter how fantastic or impossible it may seem."

"I promise."

They remained as they were for another minute – Yugi knew this because he was secretly counting the seconds in his head – without saying another word. In any other time, in any other place, in any other world, it might have seemed an odd thing to behold – a young boy and his much older doppelganger sharing an intimate and silent embrace. But here in this forest, which Yugi now found himself strangely thankful for, it felt perfectly natural. So natural, in fact, that Yugi didn't want to let go – and neither, he suspected, did the spirit. But eventually, they were forced to part. The spirit slipped his arm back around to his side, allowing Yugi to slide softly to the grass below. It was time to hear the rest of the story.

"Yugi," said the spirit, his voice hoarse and his face as pale as the fat and eerily static clouds that framed him overhead. He looked for all the world like those faces Yugi had seen bobbing about in the river – faces that seemed so blissfully _good_. "The truth is, you died in that fire."

Yugi's heart didn't just sink – it capsized. "I don't believe you…! _I can't_!" It was the first time Yugi had ever broken a promise. But even as he decried it, he knew it was the truth.

In his heart, he had known all along.

\--

Joey felt himself being carried through the air, and imagined he was soaring amongst the clouds on the back of his Red-Eyes Black Dragon. His arms were fastened to the ancient bulk of the monster's neck as the wind whipped through his hair and threatened to drown out his exhilarated whoops and cries. They were travelling at breakneck speed – so fast that the cities below seemed indivisible from the land or the oceans. The world was a blur; it couldn't keep up with them.

"C'mon, Red-Eyes!" he screamed, nearly losing his grip as the beast banked unexpectedly. "Let's go higher!" There was an almost reluctant groan from the dragon's stomach, sending vibrations all the way up Joey's arms and back that disorientated him for a second. "Yeah, you heard me, pal! Take us up! All the way up!"

Following Joey's commands, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon swooped downwards for a moment and then immediately rose higher into the sky, up into the atmosphere so that he had a good view of the clouds below. They hung over the continents like a vast winged shadow, climbing higher and higher until Joey could practically see the faint pinpricks of distant stars glinting through the wide blue veil above. And then, when he thought things couldn't get more intense, Red-Eyes rolled over onto its back without warning, forcing Joey to hang on for dear life.

Yet despite his precarious predicament, Joey was laughing. It was a genuine thrill ride, being so out of control and helpless; from the way his arms were shaking, he wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. But he laughed all the same. After all, he was on top of the world. The only way to go from here was down. His mind couldn't have been further from such earthly problems as his pops, or his dueling career, or Mai, or his poor, poor sister – Serenity. He just wished Yugi could see him now.

"Yugi…"

Something in his brain clicked, like someone elusory had turned off the lights. He didn't feel so excited anymore. That buzzing sensation in his head, the undeniable rush of risking his life, turned into something more ominous. Whereas before he would have welcomed a timely fall, now he was afraid to let go. Something about Yugi had changed his attitude. Something he had done. But what was it?

"Hey, Joey."

He craned his neck to see who had spoken. It was Yugi. The little duelist was sitting behind him with his arms wrapped around his waist, holding on for dear life. But he didn't look scared. If anything, he looked serene. His extravagant head of hair had been blown backwards by the wind, and from Joey's perspective it looked like it had all fallen out. A smile was all he offered to explain his presence in Joey's dreams.

"Yuge?" Joey asked, not even bothering to raise his voice. "What're you doin' here? It's too dangerous, ya might fall!"

"I wanted to be with you one last time, Joey," Yugi replied. But his mouth hadn't opened; instead, he'd just closed his eyes and allowed the words to fill Joey's head. It was as if he'd just thought them, and Joey had picked up on it like some kind of transceiver. "Swear you won't let go, okay?"

With that cheerful, unspoken remark, Yugi removed his hands from Joey's waist and allowed himself to fall. Joey acted instinctively, reaching out with his right arm and trying desperately to grab Yugi's sleeve. But it was too late. Yugi had tumbled too far, and now all Joey could do was watch as his friend passed through the pale boundaries of the cloud layer and plummeted toward the unseen lands beyond.

Joey's face turned blood red – as red as the eyes of the dragon he now rode – and he let out a silent scream. Yugi was gone.

\--

"Yuge!" he cried.

"Joey!"

"You're awake!"

Tristan and Téa's voices. Joey recognised them instantly. They sounded so different from when he'd last heard them. Before they were snide and callous, full of spite for him; now they couldn't have been more ecstatic. He felt arms gripping him tightly, and it didn't take him long to figure out Téa was hugging him. Without realising it, he let out a pained yelp as she pressed into him, causing her to let go. His whole body ached like it had been in a nasty car accident; his leg felt especially sore, like the muscles down there had twisted into a raw, bulbous knot. What the heck could've done that? And why was everyone so happy to see him?

Then he remembered the fire. He opened his eyes with a start, only to find himself staring at the clouds once again. For a moment he thought he was still dreaming, but then he noticed he was lying flat on his back. He tried to sit up, but a sudden pain in his chest swelled up with authority, causing him to slump backwards. It was a task and a half just to breathe in and out.

_Still_, he thought to himself, _at least we got out okay… and I managed to save our cards. Both mine and Yugi's._

"Joey, can you talk?" Tristan's voice pervaded his thoughts. "Say something, man!"

"What I wouldn't give for a heapin' helpin' of pastrami," Joey murmured dryly.

"That's our Joey," Téa let out a sigh of relief. He tilted his head to one side and looked at them. They were each of them visibly distressed; Téa's face was white as a sheet, and even Tristan seemed to be sporting a sombre attitude. Behind them, Bakura was watching over their shoulders, his lips pursed as if to say 'Oh my!' in that crazy British accent of his. And on either side, Joey could see doctors carrying him between them, their faces typically devoid of compassion. "How are you feeling?"

"Not too shabby for a guy who just survived a ragin' inferno," Joey grunted. He realised now that he was lying on a stretcher, presumably waiting to be lifted onto the back of an ambulance. It wasn't the first time he'd been rushed to hospital from school; he used to run with a rough crowd, after all. It had never been quite this serious, of course; plus, the other guy – the unfortunate soul who just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – always tended to be in much worse shape. None of this filled Joey with pride as he reflected on it morosely. Instead, it made his heart ache alongside his limbs. "I guess you're all here ta tell me how I acted like a moron, huh?"

"Don't be silly," Téa chided, although the look on Tristan's face suggested he'd taken the words right out of his mouth. "I mean, sure, it wasn't the most sane course of action – running into a burning building and all. But hey, horses do it all the time, but people love them all the same."

"Aww, don't say horses!" Joey cringed.

"Why not?"

"Because I sure could eat one right about now."

"Nice one, Joey," said Tristan, folding his arms disapprovingly. "Always thinkin' with your stomach."

"Pot, I got a message here from kettle," Joey winked. "You're black!"

"I say," Bakura stepped forward, addressing one of the doctors. In the background, Joey could just make out the whirling blue halo of the fire truck, and multiple streams of thick, fire-dousing water cascading through the air and drenching the school beyond. Joey had expected to find it a burning husk, but it looked like most of it had been left standing. Just one section seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage – the section Joey had foolishly stumbled into. "Is he going to be alright?"

"His stomach seems just fine, at least," Téa interjected.

"Until we get him to the hospital," the doctor replied, "there's no way to be certain just how much damage has been done. But I wouldn't worry about him; he seems like a tough kid. Stupid, but tough."

"Hey!" Joey snapped. "What kinda bedside manner is that s'posed to be?"

"It's called honesty, Joey," said Tristan, bluntly.

"And to be perfectly honest," said the second doctor, "if I were you, I'd be more worried about that other kid."

"What other kid?" asked Joey. At this, Téa's face darkened and she caught her lip between her teeth. "Someone wanna fill me in here?"

"Yugi, man," Tristan replied, his face threatening to twist into an ugly scowl. "He went in to rescue you, remember?"

"But we got out, right?" Joey frowned in disbelief. How could he be lying there talking to them if they didn't? The last thing he remembered, both he and Yugi were making their way out of the fire. He could see the firemen reaching out as Yugi hoisted him over a pile of burning debris, and then everything had gone blank. If they had saved him, then Yugi must be okay too. "Why the glum faces? Yugi's safe, ain't he?"

"We don't know," said Tristan. Already Téa had started crying, so soon after she'd expressed such relief at seeing Joey safe and sound. Bakura was there for her, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder and offering a quiet 'there, there.' But it clearly wasn't enough; she was going to bawl her guts out until she knew Yugi was alright – and Joey didn't blame her. No, he would never blame Téa for putting Yugi at risk. "We haven't seen him since he ran inside to save you, pal."

That last word had been like ice-cubes down the back of his vest, which did sadly little to counteract the burning sensation currently ripping its way through his chest. "Tristan, I… Yugi was with me; he saved my life, pulled my butt right outta the fire! He's okay, trust me!"

"It's been ten minutes since you came out of that school," said Tristan, casting his eyes back toward the building. The last traces of smoke were slowly beginning to dissipate, and several firemen in their black and yellow uniforms had bolted through the main entrance, like worker bees desperate to save their queen. There was something frightening about their urgency; it was like watching crazed fans jump the line at a Duel Monsters event – each time so they could get to see Yugi, the King of Games, in the flesh. "So far, no sign of him."

"Téa," Joey mumbled, watching her cradle herself in Bakura's arms. She made no sound; she had shielded her face with her well-manicured fingers, and the only indication that she was crying lay in the way her whole body would lurch forward every second or two. She looked like a broken toy, left alone to torment itself until its batteries ran dead. "Don't cry. Yugi, he'll… He's…"

Then the worker bees swarmed back out again – twice the number that had entered, all clustered together like a football team discussing strategy. Joey's head slowly rose from the stretcher; his expression alone was enough to make both Tristan and Bakura look toward the firemen. Téa, still lost in her tears, remained oblivious, but Joey had a feeling she would have been the first to notice otherwise. Because these worker bees no longer rushed about with the urgency of hyperactive Duel Monsters fans. Instead, their movements were well judged and sluggish, inching their way down the brief flight of steps and onto the schoolyard below. And to Joey's horror, he saw they were carrying something – someone – on a stretcher.

"Yuge!" Joey yelled, throwing himself off his own humble carriage and collapsing on all fours on the concrete below. Before anyone could make a move to restrain him, he had broken into a brisk hobble. "I'm comin', Yuge!"

"Joey…!" shouted Tristan, hesitant to give chase.

It was too late; Joey was now galloping as fast as his burnt and battered body could carry him. With every other stride, his leg would scream for mercy, though he wasn't about to stop and listen to its complaining. But oh, how it screamed. To top it off, his chest felt as though he'd swallowed painful chunks of white-hot coal and they were rattling about inside him, struggling just to reach his digestive system. Still, he ran – his feet fumbling all the way. And throughout the agony and the fear, one thought kept spinning around inside his head:

_Please let him be okay._

"Outta my way!" he barged through a small group of students, just as the firemen began to disperse.

_Please let him be okay._

A collective gasp struck the air as both teachers and pupils alike understood what was happening. The stretcher was now on full display, although its occupant was hidden beneath a sheet as pale as the look on Téa's face had been.

_Please let him be okay._

One of the firemen came forward. "I'm sorry, you'll have to…"

"Back off!" Joey snarled, forcing his way forward. He had slowed to a steady limp, but he still had enough strength in his upper body to make it to the stretcher. The firemen, recognising him as the kid they'd saved earlier, were reluctant to drag him away. When one of them made a move, Joey just glared. "He's my friend. I wanna see him."

"I wouldn't…"

"I want… to see him!" Joey repeated, his left eye twitching dangerously. They stepped out of his way, and Joey took his place beside Yugi. His hands touched the fabric covering his best friend. It was as though he'd accidentally overslept, and Joey was just going to nudge him awake. _Wake up, sleepyhead! _he thought with half a smirk. And then, more desperately:

_Please let him be okay._

But of course he was gonna be okay. Why did he even doubt it? Yugi had overcome so much. He'd won tournaments even when the odds were stacked against him. He'd wiped the floor with that smug, superior Seto Kaiba time after time. He'd beaten creatures straight out of the Shadow Realm – real life monsters, the kind most kids Yugi's age would've been terrified just to glance askance at. He'd even shown Joey a thing or two over the course of their friendship together. No measly little fire was gonna stop him. No, not Yugi.

But even so, that same awful thought still rose above all the rest.

_Please let him be okay. Let Yugi be alright. Let me pull back this sheet and see him smilin' up at me, as if he didn't even know there was a problem. And then we can go back to the way things were; pretend I never even flipped my lid. Please let it be that way._

_Please._

He narrowed his eyes, and slid the sheet back a couple of inches.

"… Nuh… No!"

Joey fell away from the stretcher. Whether it was a result of the intense pain in his leg, or the shock of what he saw, he couldn't be certain. His body had just given up. On his long and dwindling journey to the floor, his elbow somehow collided with the metal rim of the stretcher, creating a bruise that would refuse to fade for another six and a half days. It also caused the stretcher to take off slowly in the direction of the stairs, where it eventually came to a languid halt; nevertheless, its back wheels bumped into the bottom stone step, sending an awkward jolt throughout the stretcher's skeletal framework.

And a stiff, blackened thing that might have resembled a hand emerged from underneath the soft, bleached texture of the sheet.

"Yuge…" Joey's eyes couldn't handle what they were seeing, and instinctively flooded themselves with tears so he'd be forced to close them. Underneath the white shroud, he'd seen Yugi's face – if you could even call it a face anymore – and had been reminded of his dream aboard the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. He remembered plain as day how the wind had blown Yugi's hair behind him as they soared, so it looked as though every last colourful strand had fallen out. He remembered it so vividly, and wept. "No, Yuge… Please, Yuge… Puh-please… Yuh… Yuge…"

One of the firemen rushed over and slipped the hand back underneath the sheet. But it wouldn't change a thing. Joey would always be able to see it, whenever he closed his eyes. He'd see that hand in his nightmares for the rest of his life. He'd see the hand, and a face that wasn't a face.

And no hair.

No hair whatsoever.

\--

END OF CHAPTER THREE


	5. Chapter Four: Adrift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or any of its characters. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi.**
> 
> Me again.
> 
> So this chapter was a bit of a toughie to write. It's somewhat exposition-heavy, so hopefully you'll be able to forgive that. Not much happens in the way of action, but heck, if you managed to slog your way through the first two chapters, I doubt that's gonna bother you much. Eh-heh.
> 
> Next few chapters should be a breeze to write, if all goes well. Not sure how long the story'll be. At a guess, I'd estimate, say, twenty chapters? Give or take. I do have an ending in mind, but nothing's set in stone.
> 
> Anyways, enjoy.

At last, Yugi understood.

For the first time since arriving, he understood where he was – and why he was there. This was the Afterlife. Being so young, he hadn't really given much consideration to what awaited him once everything was said and done, so he was nearly able to take this all-important revelation in stride. Yes, this was the Afterlife, and yes, it was just an empty forest that stretched on into infinity. There were no choruses of angels on high heralding his arrival. There were no long-since-expired relatives waiting for him with open arms and a limitless list of their life stories. Just a river, swimming with endless rows of translucent faces that looked so happy they just might burst, and the spirit of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh. That was all. But Yugi understood.

Yugi also understood why he was suddenly able to physically interact with the spirit. At first, this had struck him as being the only development in recent memory worth celebrating. However, his joy had soon been cut short, for it seemed the only reason he could touch the spirit was quite simply because he too was a spirit. The Pharaoh had not grown solid overnight; instead, Yugi had merely cast aside his mortal form and found himself an astral body of his very own. Rather than being the only person Yugi couldn't touch, the spirit was now the opposite – he was his only companion. But Yugi understood.

Above all, Yugi understood with great clarity why the spirit had been so reluctant to tell him the rest of the story – that one crucial detail that gave away his fate. Throughout the tale, flashes of feeling had come pouring back into him like waves of emotion crashing against the cliff-face of his subconscious. Upon hearing of Joey's ire toward him, he had suddenly felt a great weight on his shoulders – the weight of responsibility, the burden of keeping their friendship alive. It ate away at his resolve even now, long after they had apparently made up. When the spirit described Joey's suicidal attempt to save their cards, Yugi's heart had risen into his throat. He found himself paralysed, transfixed by the story – but at the same time, he wanted desperately to run and save his friend; he was compelled to do so by his sense of loyalty, even though Joey was likely far from danger at this point.

And then, when the spirit had bowed to Yugi's wishes and explained exactly what had led Yugi to this place – that this was the Afterlife, and that he had died in the fire – yet another feeling had taken over. But instead of being an intense rush of emotion, one that threatened to wrest control of Yugi's body and force him to react to events that had long since lost their immediacy, this feeling was dim and distant; it was lethargic and lifeless, and oh so dark. It was like pain, but much softer. It dulled all Yugi's other senses and made him want to fall asleep – to fall asleep and never wake up again. He understood this part best of all. It was his own death that he now sensed.

He understood, and was devastated because of it.

"Yugi!" the spirit had grasped him by the arms and was doing his utmost to calm him down. "Yugi, listen to me! It's over! Let go of it!"

But that was easier said than done, for as soon as the numbing sensation took hold, Yugi had begun to lose control. It was as though his very mind had been fractured; the memory of his untimely death usurped his rationality, replacing it with an almighty sense of loss and confusion. Later, when he would come to reflect on this moment of absolute helplessness, he would be reminded of a television commercial he once saw that depicted a salesman being ripped in half like a sheet of paper as if to illustrate slashed prices. That was how Yugi felt once that dark feeling overwhelmed him – torn right down the middle. He was both dead and not dead at the same time; the paradox was beyond terrifying.

_This is why he didn't want to tell me,_ were his only sensible thoughts throughout this prolonged mental collapse. _He knew I wouldn't be able to handle it._

And then, a bizarre yet oddly comforting sentence filled his head.

_Wake up, sleepyhead!_

"Yugi!" the spirit cried, his emotions getting the better of him. He pulled the boy to his chest and hugged his trembling form as hard as he could. "I'm sorry… I just wanted to help you. To do what was right for you."

"Sp-spirit," Yugi whispered, his amethyst eyes gradually rolling forward as he regained control of his senses. Something about that sentence, so familiar and so alien, had given him the strength to slip through the shadowy clutches of his memory. Whatever it meant, he was eternally thankful for it. "I… I think I'm alright."

"Thank the Gods!" the spirit exclaimed, practically lifting Yugi up in his arms and holding him out as if to admire him. His face swelled with pride, the blade of his nose striking the air while a pair of grateful tears drifted over the caps of his cheeks. "I was afraid you might lose your mind. That I might lose _you_!"

"It was touch-and-go there for a minute," said Yugi, proving himself to be a master of understatement as well as the dueling field. "It was weird; like, my mind couldn't figure out if I was dead or alive. Like a computer stuck trying to determine which came first, the chicken or the egg."

"Hmm?" the Pharaoh's exotic eyes batted at this analogy. "Surely it was the egg?"

"Uh," Yugi grinned, sweat-drops settling on the ridge of his brow. It seemed the spirit wasn't one for philosophy. "Never mind, it's not important." He allowed the spirit to drop him gently to the floor, and marveled at this new dimension to their friendship. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this."

"What's that?"

"Being like you, I guess," Yugi said. He didn't want to hurt the spirit's feelings, but the truth was that he rather hated the idea of being this way – of being a spirit. Sure, it took their friendship to a whole new level, but the sacrifice he'd made had been too great to even comprehend. "I feel so lost and alone here. If you hadn't shown up, I'm not sure what I would've done."

"Now you know how I felt when you first solved the Millennium Puzzle," the spirit said. The proud smile had yet to leave his face, though there was noticeable sorrow in his voice. "You are now as I once was, Yugi. A wandering spirit bereft of a host body."

Yugi's face fell as this sank in. "A wandering spirit, huh?" He sighed. So many times he'd taken his body for granted, giving it over to the Pharaoh quite willingly in the midst of some cataclysmic duel. Somehow he always knew he'd return to find it in good shape – maybe a little exhausted, but in one piece nevertheless. Now he was trapped, unable to return to his body even if he wanted to. "I can't imagine being stuck this way for five thousand years, like you were."

"Time in the spirit world can be elusive," said the spirit. "Sometimes it passes quickly, and sometimes an instant can be drawn out to such a length that you begin to question your own sanity. Five thousand years could quite easily seem like five years – or five million."

"That would explain a lot about this place," said Yugi. "Everything seems frozen stiff, like the grass, and the sky. Y'know, I must've been here over half a day, but the sun hasn't even started to set. It's just stuck up there, glaring at me like some forgotten Christmas decoration. It was enough to make me wonder if any of this was really happening."

Yugi felt his frustration rise in his gut, calling to mind the hours of fruitless searching he'd wasted trying to explore this indifferent illusion of a forest. He'd been walking for miles over the same pathless tract, with the river as his indomitable guide. Would he have persevered on into obscurity if the spirit hadn't shown up? And if so, then for how long would he have traveled before finally snapping? A week? A month? A year? Two years? _Five thousand_…?

"Geez, spirit," he began, "how did you manage to get by? Five thousand years of solitude – that's no easy feat. I mean, I know you weren't exactly a people person when we first met, but…"

"You forget, I was within the Millennium Puzzle," the spirit explained. "Its magic allowed me to control my perception of time. You could say I was asleep – hibernating until the chosen one arrived to release me." His eyes narrowed as they traced the horizon, as though they were searching for some distant memory. "That's not to say I didn't experience what it was like to be alone. For not only was I without company; I was without a name – without an identity to call my own." His face lit up, and for one incredible moment Yugi felt alive again. Just to see such undeniable joy on his partner's face was like being able to feel his heart thumping away enthusiastically inside his chest. "That's when you found me, Yugi – and everything changed."

"Everything changed," Yugi repeated to himself thoughtfully.

It was hard to envision a time before he knew the spirit – a time when they hadn't been together. It had only been a few years, but they'd been the sort of years that Yugi would have doubtlessly gone on to cherish for the rest of his life. Years as invaluable as his Egyptian God cards. His grandpa had sometimes spoken of his golden years, and of friends he'd lost touch with over time – friends he'd known since he was Yugi's age, as unimaginable as that was. Whenever he mentioned them, he'd get this winsome look on his face, and Yugi (if he'd been listening at the time) would think: _In his heart, he's still there with them; despite what he says, he never truly lost touch with his friends from those golden years so long ago._ And then he'd think about the spirit of the Puzzle, and how there was every chance that they might find themselves separated someday, and he would be forced simply to reflect on what precious little time they had together.

Now, it seemed the reverse were true. He and the Pharaoh had all the time in the world to share with one another. It was his other friends – those of flesh and blood – that he had ultimately parted with, that he had been forced to look back on and remember as though they were a part of ancient history, even though they'd been with him as recently as yesterday. While he didn't like to consider what it would be like to lose the Pharaoh, he had still contemplated it – usually in the wee hours of the night, when even spirits needed their slumber. But he had rarely given a single thought to losing Joey, or Téa, or Tristan. If something went wrong, he was sure they'd pull through somehow – that their friendship would be enough to overcome adversity. He had simply taken them for granted.

_I should have cherished them_, he thought. _Cherished them the way I cherished him. The way I still cherish him. But it's too late now._

"Everything changed," he said again, his voice hoarse as though the words were struggling to find purchase. "It changed before I got a chance to appreciate what I had. Those were my golden years, and I never even got to regret losing my friends."

He sobbed weakly and rested his head horizontally across the Pharaoh's slender kneecaps. He would have cried until his eyes were red with indignation, mourning his many stolen memories and reciting the powerless phrase '_It's not fair!_' over and over until his lungs deflated. He would have gathered sticks and stones and tossed them savagely into the river, just to lash out at those innumerable faces that laughed in spite of his torment. He would have cried out for his friends, for his grandpa, and lastly for his mother and father. He would have done all this and more, had the spirit not spoken up at the watershed of his lament.

"You may not have to regret it," the spirit spoke cautiously.

"Huh?"

"You may not have to regret losing them," he said once more. He placed a hand on Yugi's shoulder as if to comfort him, although there was something else behind that gesture. It almost felt like a warning. "You may not even have to lose them at all. Yugi – you can always see your friends again. That is, if you really wish to."

\--

The old chestnut '_like the back of my hand_', often used to describe things we are extremely familiar with, has to be one of the oddest phrases ever coined. It makes little sense, since it suggests that human beings spend an inordinate amount of time studying the backsides of their hands. How this misconception came about, we can't be sure. If anything, human beings are more likely to study their palms, if only because it provides good practice for swindling gullible folk in the fortune telling racket. The only people who really spend much time staring at their hands are writers – and as we all know, they don't really count as people per say.

Yugi Moto, however, is one of the rare exceptions to this general rule. He has an intimate knowledge of the way his hands look – the back of his right hand in particular. You may assume that this is because he is a duelist, and is thus frequently required to shuffle, draw, set, and flip the cards in his deck with that particular appendage. This is only part of the reason Yugi knows his hands so well.

The other – and far more significant – reason, is because Yugi once had something drawn on the back of his right hand – something that meant a great deal to him. It was a symbol of friendship bestowed upon him, and three others, by someone he cared for deeply. Whenever he is in dire need of his friends, he looks to his hand and visualises the thick, black squiggles that once curled their way cheerfully across his youthful skin. They appear to him without fail, looking as clear as they did the day they were drawn; he is even able to smell the pungent, inky residue – a scent he will forever associate with Téa. To most guys, a girl will smell like the perfume she's wearing – strawberries, lavender, etc. To Yugi, she always smelled like a freshly opened marker pen.

When the spirit suggested that he might see his friends again, Yugi's mind immediately turned to that symbol. It had been nothing too extravagant. Téa had asked them each to put their hands together, and then subsequently traced a smiley face – the kind you could find on t-shirts or in text messages– over them, so that it only took form when their fingers touched. Yugi recalled that, since his hand had been trembling something awful (he was busy fretting about his grandpa's health at the time), he'd worried that his nerves might ruin the gesture. But they hadn't, and the four of them came to accept it as a representation of the one fundamental thing that united them in a time of crisis: their friendship.

But as Yugi thought about it, he realised it could no longer stand for something so beautiful; for without the other three hands to compare it to, his quarter of the symbol didn't stand for a thing. It was a fraction of a whole, a tiny piece of a grander puzzle. It only served to remind him that they were gone – that he had left them behind when he passed over. Without them, he felt incomplete. So was it any wonder that he answered the way he did?

"If there's a way to see my friends again, I will do anything it takes."

The spirit nodded solemnly. "I had a feeling you would say that."

"Tell me how, spirit!" Yugi rose to his feet and thrust his hands forward, taking hold of the Pharaoh's shoulders. "Please, you have to show me!"

"Very well," said the spirit, exhaling through his nose. His noble features strained indiscernibly for a second, and he stood up so that he practically towered over his diminutive partner. "But you must first listen to what I have to say. Over time, I have learned how the spirit world works, so you would do well to heed my words. Even if you don't get to see your friends…"

"But you just said-"

"Heed my words," the spirit repeated. "Even if you don't see your friends, it is vitally important that we both stay together. I don't want to lose you again."

"I don't want to lose you either," Yugi agreed, a pink shade blossoming in his cheeks. "But if there's chance to see them again, then I've gotta take it. I can't let them down!"

The spirit chuckled. "Of course. You wouldn't be my partner if you felt differently." He spread his arms to either side of him, his voice now grave and striking as ever. "This place we're in, Yugi – it isn't real. It doesn't actually exist outside of your own thoughts. In a way, it's not unlike our soul rooms." He spoke of the places that Shadi had visited – rooms that lay within the mind, constructed to suit a person's very essence. While the Pharaoh's soul room had been enormously complex, like an ancient catacomb with impossible twists and turns, Yugi's had been colourful and innocent, like a child's playroom. "However, while a soul room is intended to keep a person's essence intact, this place is the opposite. When we die, our souls linger here, waiting to be released. It is, for want of a better term, our purgatory."

Yugi had only a vague sense of what the term meant. "You mean like a jailhouse for souls?"

"In a way, yes," the spirit said. "Except that here, when a soul wishes to leave, it can do so freely of its own accord."

"Wow!" Yugi gasped. "So, we can get out of here? Just like that?"

"It's not that simple," the spirit said. "You've noticed the river, haven't you?"

"You could say that, yeah…"

"You've seen the faces, then?" the spirit asked. When Yugi nodded, he continued: "Those faces belong to other spirits – those who have chosen to accept their fates and move on to the next world, the land of the dead."

"They looked so happy," Yugi whispered. "I couldn't take my eyes off them."

"For some spirits, the river is the only way out," said the Pharaoh, oblivious to Yugi's softly spoken words. "For them, its current provides entry into paradise. But many spirits cannot so much as see themselves within its waters. If they were to fall in, they would surely drown. Their souls would suffocate, and they would slowly fade into nothingness."

"Oh man," Yugi gasped. His eyes widened. "Wait… Are you saying that would've happened to me?"

The spirit closed his eyes. "Yes, Yugi. If I had not arrived in time, you would have been beyond my reach." His jaw seemed to stiffen at this, and his fingers curled into angry white stubs. "By the Gods, I would never have been able to forgive myself if…"

"Don't!" said Yugi. "Don't say that, don't even think it. You were here in time to save me; that's what matters." The spirit seemed to relax, although his knuckles still bore the ruddy remnants of his remorse. "Just out of curiosity, how exactly did you wind up here anyway? Did you get drawn here by the Millennium Puzzle?"

"No, Yugi," the spirit replied. "No, I'm afraid the Millennium Puzzle was damaged in the fire. Its magical energies were warped, and it could no longer sustain me."

_So that's it, then, _Yugi swallowed. _That cinches it. I failed. I was supposed to be the bearer of the Millennium Puzzle – the protector of the Pharaoh's spirit. I was meant to save the world from the return of the Shadow Games… But now look at me. I couldn't even save myself, let alone the rest of the world. I allowed the Puzzle to slip from my fingers. I traded destiny for one of my friends. And now, we're all suffering because of it. I'm the reason the spirit's quest is at an end. He had so much faith in me, too. So much misplaced faith. Everybody did. Heck, even me._

And then, a terrible thought:

_Maybe I wasn't supposed to find him._

"Spirits who cannotfollow the river to the land of the dead," the spirit continued, his voice rising over Yugi's inner monologue, "are those who have unfinished business in the world of the living. Their souls will not allow themselves to be cast into the world beyond, and they are torn asunder. Their only hope of survival is to either wander through purgatory for eternity… or become drifters."

"Drifters?" said Yugi. This was another term he had heard before, although its earthly definition was probably not what the spirit had in mind. "My grandpa's always complaining about them."

"I doubt your grandfather has ever seen one," the spirit raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Drifters are souls with the ability to travel from one plane of existence to another." He noticed the look of confusion Yugi was giving him. "For example, this forest we are in represents your soul's personal plane – a unique level in the spirit world."

"So, you might call it a spirit level?" Yugi said, his lips pressed tightly together in a smirk. When the spirit failed to pick up on his pun, he allowed the smile to fade. _I bet Joey would've gotten that,_ he thought despondently.

"Yes," the spirit replied. "Everybody gets their very own spirit level." Joey would have been in stitches right about now. "Those who become drifters are able to visit other spirit levels – or even return to the land of the living, if they so desire."

"They are?" Yugi gaped.

"So I have been told," said the Pharaoh. "You see, in order to reach this forest – your spirit level – I first had to learn how to drift." He turned his eyes skyward and let out a cheerless laugh. "My first experience drifting was little more than a fortunate accident. When I ceased to exist in the land of the living, I found myself in my own personal purgatory. Mine wasn't a forest; instead it was a desert, with dunes the size of small mountain ranges stretching as far as the eye could see."

"Was there a river?" asked Yugi.

"Of course," said the spirit. "And yes, I found myself drawn to it, as I'm sure you were similarly compelled. Somehow it reminded me of home. Remember those Geography classes you took?"

"Uh-huh," Yugi mumbled, thinking he would never had to take another class again. He didn't know whether to be elated or not.

"I would sometimes look at the maps of Egypt your teacher drew on the board," the spirit continued, "and it would strike me just how familiar they appeared. One feature in particular stirred my memories, although it never actually woke any: the River Nile."

"The longest river in the world," said Yugi. "Or at least, the longest in our world."

"I thought I had found it," the spirit said. "Part of me was so sure I had arrived back in my homeland. I felt certain that my quest was finally at an end – that it was time to return to the land of the dead. I wanted so badly to step into that river, to wade through it until its warm waters hugged my waist, and allow those kindred faces to carry me toward the farthest reaches of the spirit world. But something stopped me." He looked down at Yugi. "It was you, Yugi. No matter how strongly I wished to return home, I just couldn't leave you. I knew you were out there somewhere, and I had to find you.

"I turned my back to the river, which in my mind was still calling out to me – telling me that I deserved to rest, that I was no longer bound by any duty to you. I blocked it out; somehow Isilenced those heavenly voices that beckoned my soul to its eternal slumber, and I walked away. I rejected paradise to be with you, and I no more regret it now than I did as I stood on the shores of that river."

"Spirit," said Yugi, overcome by his partner's words. "I… I don't know what to say." In truth, he knew what he wanted to say. In truth, he wanted to yell at the spirit, to tell him that he wasn't worth such a vast sacrifice. Not after he had failed him so completely. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. In truth, he was happy the spirit had returned for him. In truth, he would have done the same. "How did you leave your spirit level? I've tried walking away from the river; it just brought me right back to it."

"Walking away was only the first step," said the spirit. "While I was walking, I began to focus on you – on everything that I could remember about you. I thought of the sound of your voice, of the many colours of your hair, and of the way you shuffle your deck. I thought of your faith in the heart of the cards, and of your faith in your friends. I thought of the mornings when I found you fast asleep, and how I would emerge from the Puzzle just to be there when you woke up. I thought of the way your stomach would tighten whenever you were losing a duel, and of the way it would relax when I gave you advice. I thought of how you were so uncomfortable with your fame, and the way you blushed whenever an attractive girl mentioned she was your biggest fan. I thought of Yugi Moto, and found there was no end to the memories of the one I called my partner; they simply went on forever, just like the river I had forsaken – perhaps even further. And that is when I began to drift."

"Eh-heh," Yugi shuffled his feet, his face a bashful beet-red. "So that's all it took, huh?"

"As I said before, the first time was an accident," the spirit went on. "As soon as I felt my body starting to float, I lost my train of thought – and promptly fell flat on my face in the sand." Yugi couldn't help but snicker at this image of the Pharaoh tripping in mid-air, like some sort of cartoon character. "But I picked myself up and tried again. This time I made sure to concentrate on my memories of you, even as I found myself flying through the air towards a mysterious portal that had opened in the sky. It was only when I had passed through the portal that I allowed myself to fully absorb what was happening. I had crossed over to another plane of existence."

"Is that when you found me?" asked Yugi.

"Actually, no," said the spirit. "The portal had taken me somewhere else entirely, into a dark pocket of abstract images and sounds. At first, I feared that it had taken me to the Shadow Realm, and I had somehow doomed myself to be swallowed by the horrors therein. But before I could turn around and head back the way I came, I was approached by another spirit."

"A person…? Did you recognise them at all?"

"No. He was dressed unlike anyone I had seen in your time, and his face didn't strike me as familiar. He hailed me as a stranger, and introduced himself as a fellow 'drifter'. It seems he had been drifting for centuries, trying to find another means of entering the land of the dead."

"Didn't he want to go back to the land of the living?" asked Yugi. Why anyone in his position should wish to do otherwise had yet to occur to him.

"I asked him as much," the Pharaoh replied. "He didn't really give me an answer, except to say that the living no longer required his services. I then asked him where we were, and he explained that I had stumbled upon a spirit nexus – in other words, a connecting point between worlds. From there, he told me I could travel anywhere I wished, either to another spirit's domain, or the land of the living itself. Except, of course, the land of the dead – which was, in his own words, off-limits to the general public. I thanked him, and wished him luck in his quest, and likewise he wished me luck in mine."

"Wait," Yugi interjected. "Did you tell him you were on a quest?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you actually say to him that you were on a quest?" Yugi pressed. "At any point?"

"Well, no," the spirit said, unease beginning to tug at the corners of his mouth. "But he must have assumed, since I had found my way there…"

"Yeah," Yugi replied, somewhat warily. "I guess you're right. So, then what happened?"

"Then," the spirit sucked in air, as though he was about to deliver a long, drawn-out sentence – but it never came, "I found you."

"Oh," Yugi grinned. "Right."

"It took me several hours of searching," the spirit confessed. "There were so many gateways hidden away within the walls of the nexus, to find one that belonged to you seemed an impossible task. I found it easier to concentrate, however, when I thought about you. And just like that, my memories led me here."

"So," said Yugi, "do you suppose that if I concentrated real hard on the memory of my friends, I'd get to see them again?"

"I do," the spirit replied. "But Yugi, please don't be too hasty about this. Think about what you're doing. I have no idea what awaits us in the land of the living. It might be dangerous for two lost souls to venture beyond the spirit world. And although you will be able to see your friends, they will not be able to sense your presence. You will have no way of communicating with them, or letting them know you're there. It could be very unpleasant for you."

"I know," said Yugi. "But spirit, I've made my decision."

"Yugi…"

"Even if they don't know I'm there," he continued, "it makes little difference. I'll still be there for them, in one form or another. They're my friends. I won't abandon them just because I'm…"

"I understand," the spirit said, "and I shall be with you all the way."

Yugi cocked his head toward the spirit. "You're coming along for the ride, then?"

"I wouldn't miss it for all the sand in Egypt," the Pharaoh chuckled. "Besides, just as you need to be with your friends, I need to be by your side. We are partners, Yugi. Not even death could separate us."

"Right!" Yugi beamed, jamming his thumb in the air. "Next stop, Domino City!"

With that, Yugi relaxed his body and began to meditate. He didn't know any proper breathing techniques, nor did he know the correctpostures – for all he knew, the lotus position was an extract from the Kama Sutra – but he knew how to empty his mind. He had learned to do so one hot summer afternoon, when his mind was buzzing with homework problems and dueling strategies – and girls, since that was about the time of year when they all started wearing less and less. The spirit had spoken to him, practically complaining about all the noise inside his head. Yugi had apologised, saying he wished there was something he could do about it. But according to the spirit, there was indeed a way to silence his thoughts.

\--

_Imagine your thoughts as Duel Monsters cards, _the spirit had suggested.

_Which ones? _Yugi had asked. _Because if I'm going to be dueling with them, I'm gonna need a good strong deck. Hey, maybe Dark Magician Girl could-_

_You're not going to be dueling,_ the spirit had cut him off. _Just place six cards in front of you in your head. Now, upon those cards, place a representation of each of your thoughts._

Yugi had proceeded to do just that. On one card, he mentally sketched the image of a school textbook. On another, he drew a portrait of the Pharaoh dueling against Seto Kaiba – the Pharaoh was, of course, winning by a mile, and the frustration evident on Kaiba's face had been almost comical. He did the same for the other four cards, eventually leading up to the sixth – upon which he placed a lovingly rendered picture of a girl in a bikini.

_Yugi!_ the spirit had spluttered.

_Hey, it was your idea! Too late to back out now._

_Very well, _the spirit had said, sounding a tad disgruntled. _Now then, one by one, I want you to turn those cards over. Place them face-down, as though they were in defense mode._

Yugi had done as he was asked. He reached out in his mind and flipped the cards over; first the text book card, then the Pharaoh card, and on, and on, until he was forced to reluctantly turn over the card with the girl winking at him on the front. He was about to ask the spirit what he should do next, when it immediately struck him – his mind was now quiet as a tomb.

_Hey!_ _Thanks, spirit!_

_Don't mention it, Yugi._

_But could I at least peek at the last card again?_

_Yugi…_

_Aww, c'mon._

\--

Now, Yugi found himself emptying his mind in much the same way. He pictured himself turning over six Duel Monsters cards, the last of which depicted a river flowing toward the distant horizon. Once they were all face-down on the ground before him, he found he was able to think clearly for the first time in what seemed like ages. Turning away from the river, he began to walk. And as he walked, he thought.

He thought of Tristan. He thought of the way his hairdo seemed to defy gravity, which of course meant that they both had at least one thing in common. He thought of Tristan's favourite card, the Cyber Commander, and how he'd fallen for that one girl in their class – the one with the ribbon in her hair.

He thought of Joey. He thought of all the tough scrapes they'd been in together, and how Joey always had a joke to crack at just the right (or wrong) time. He thought of the days before Joey became a true duelist, when he would constantly beg Yugi for advice in constructing his deck. He thought of Joey's love for his sister, and how he had used it to fight all the way to the finals of the Duelist Kingdom tournament. He thought of all the times he had seen Joey beaten, only for him to get right back up again with a grin on his face. He thought of how Joey had risked his life for his cards – for _their_ cards.

He thought of Téa. He thought of how she was his oldest friend, and how she'd been the first person to talk to him when he came to Domino High. He thought of how much taller she had seemed back then, and how these days he barely even noticed their height difference. He thought of the way she'd stuck up for him when the other kids would bully him, and how strong-willed she'd been long before they even started going on adventures together. He thought of the first time she'd confessed to her dream of becoming a dancer, and how embarrassed she had been by it. He thought of how he'd longed to watch her dance on a stage. He thought of the scent of freshly opened marker pen.

But most of all, he thought of that symbol on his right hand – and how it would soon be complete once again.

He faintly felt the spirit's hand slipping gently into his, and something in his gut seemed to buckle. Then he tilted his head back, and saw that high above them a portal had appeared. It looked like someone had opened a skylight in the clouds. Yugi hadn't noticed that they'd begun to float upwards, or that they were already high above the treetops. He didn't hear the spirit when he said: "We're doing it, Yugi! We're drifting!" For he was too busy thinking of his friends.

After all, he knew them like the back of his hand.

\--

**END OF CHAPTER FOUR**


	6. Chapter Five: A River in Egypt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or any of its characters. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi.**
> 
> Hello, fellow fanfic enthusiasts. No, the story hasn't been taken over by a new author. I just changed my Pen Name. I figured using my real name was dumb (not to mention bland), plus I wanted to connect it to Yu-Gi-Oh… so, ta-dah.
> 
> Allow me just to take this opportunity to say thanks to those of you who are leaving positive reviews. The sheer volume I've received blows me away; I honestly never expected this fic to appeal to so many people. And can you really blame me? It's not appealing. I killed off the main character at the beginning of the story. If that isn't gonna polarise people, then I don't know what will. I don't even know if -I- like the fic.
> 
> I'll level with you – this is a hard story for me to write. I don't mean that in the sense that it's complicated. It's difficult for me to let such horrible things to happen to these characters. I love Yugi – he's my favourite character. But I had to let him die. As hard as that may be to read about, it's twice as hard to write – because it's like his life is in my hands. I don't want him to die any more than you folks do.
> 
> It's a story where unfortunate things happen to perfectly nice people. This chapter is no exception; it kicks off with a dream sequence involving Serenity. And again, it's pretty upsetting. But, like everything else, it's important in the grand scheme of things.
> 
> I promise you; things'll be okay in the end.
> 
> I may let Yugi die, but his spirit never will.

_This is what Joey sees when his eyes are shut._

_Serenity Wheeler, beloved sister, ambling her way down a road toward ruin. In her hands, she is clutching a cream-textured device – a handheld video-game system; it is a gift from her brother, although technically Téa deserves the credit since she did all the work picking it out for him. He doesn't have a clue what girls are into these days. His mind is too busy buzzing with Duel Monsters techniques to make room for something like that. He's got other things to worry about._

_Serenity is smiling, though not necessarily out of happiness. Joey could not picture her in such a state – not after what he has seen and heard. No, instead she smiles because she doesn't know what awaits her in this all too lucid vision. She smiles because it will act as a stark contrast to the look on her face when the experience has concluded, and for days she will only be able to speak in mumbles and whispers. She smiles because it hurts him to imagine that she traveled that road thinking about what a kind and supportive brother he is. She smiles because Joey hasn't seen her do so in weeks. She smiles because in reality she cannot – and neither can he._

_She skips deftly over the curb and crosses the remarkably empty street. The twin screens glowing in the palm of her hand cast a soft light over her face, adding to the innocent twinkle in the crescents of her eyes. She thinks she knows where she is, but she has been misled. She is trying to find her way home, but either she wasn't paying enough attention, or she decided to try out a shortcut – it doesn't really matter. What matters is that she is too engrossed in her game to notice the garish graffiti stenciled on the walls surrounding her, littered with vulgar phrases and images that she wouldn't understand. What matters is that she looks up for a second and spies an alley straight ahead of her, and decides to cut through it to shave a few minutes off her route. What matters is that Joey isn't there to warn or protect her from what lies hidden in that alley. What matters is that she is alone._

_Stepping over the sharp remnants of a few broken bottles, Serenity giggles quietly to herself as she designs yet another dress in the game she's playing. She can't wait to tell her big brother about it – maybe even show it to him the next time they see each other. But the next time they see each other, she won't be able to show him anything at all. She won't be able to show him the game. She won't be able to show him a smile. She won't be able to do anything except hug herself and apologise over and over again for something that isn't even her fault._

_Her foot lands in a puddle, and for a moment she is taken by surprise. "That's weird. It hasn't rained in…" She trails off because she recognises the smell, and knows immediately that it isn't water she's stepped in. It's alcohol – or, as her father used to call it, 'liquor'._ _She remembers that very well because of the joke Joey always used to tell when he was certain their dad wasn't listening. 'Liquor? I barely know 'er!' He was always so funny. Serenity snorts cheerfully as she wipes her foot on a nearby scrap of newspaper marked with last month's date. It's the last cheerful sound she'll make for a long, long time._

_"What's tha' you go' there, pretty?"_

_The voice is like a cold, clammy hand grabbing her by the scruff of the neck. She tenses up, nearly dropping the handheld device in shock. Instinctively, she snaps it firmly shut and slips the stylus controller into the appropriate slot on the back. She breathes a sigh of relief, as though she is more concerned with the safety of Joey's gift than she is with her own. "H-hello? Is, is someone there?"_

_"Some'un, yah," the voice returns. It seems to be coming from behind an overturned trashcan. Underneath its raspy slither of a tone, she can hear what sounds like metal scraping against metal. She gets the mental image of someone rubbing a knife and fork together salaciously, and all at once she starts to tremble from her head down to her toes. "I'm reckon you're losht."_

_"Yes," Serenity replies, the quiver now reaching her voice. _What would Joey do?_ she's busy asking herself. "I'm just trying to get home. I didn't mean to disturb you. I'm sorry."_

_"Shorry's no' good enough," the voice slurs, "as my mah always use to shay."_

_Just then, the scraping sound rises to a shrill clatter, and Serenity nearly jumps out of her skin as a half-empty bottle comes rolling out from behind the trashcan and tumbles to a halt at her feet. The foul-smelling brew within seems to dance sluggishly, and she manages to catch her reflection in the oily, filth-encrusted glass. She looks as terrified as she feels. Clearing her throat, she tries to put on a brave posture. "Well, it'll have to do. Now please excuse me, I…"_

_"Could you no' jus' pick tha' up for me, pretty?" the voice croaks pathetically. "I'm jus' can't bring m'self to get up right now. I'm dead tired, y'know?"_

_She knows, all right. She's overheard enough stories about her dad to know what beer does to people. It makes them apathetic – or, as her new friend might put it, it makes them dead tired. It numbs the body and the mind like a kind of tranquiliser. Unbridled by misery, Serenity sees no reason why someone should want to feel this way. But very shortly, she will come to know why certain people seek out that numb sensation waiting for them at the bottom of the bottle. She will know why so many wish to slumber in the shade of apathy. She will know the joy of a good tranquiliser. She too will be so very tired. Dead tired, you might say._

_Serenity shakes her head, not knowing whether the owner of the voice can actually see her or not. She does it simply to bolster her courage. Her brother always used to tell her: 'Don't you go talkin' to no strangers. Especially strangers who act like dad! Heck, as far as I'm concerned, he's the strangest guy walkin' the face o' the Earth! Just say no, and get outta there as fast as you can!' His advice comes to her like thunder from a clear blue sky, and in his words she finds the strength to speak in spite of her fear. "No. I'm in a hurry."_

_She's going to sprint. She's going to launch herself over that trashcan, leaping well out of harm's way, and run home as fast as her legs can carry her. She's going to follow her brother's instructions to a tee. She's going to be like the proverbial Three Billy Goats Gruff, crossing over the bridge before the troll can eat her for supper. She's going to be a good little sister, because she knows her big brother's always right. Big brother always knows best. Big brother will be so proud of her when she tells him about this. And by then, it'll seem like some forgotten nightmare – like she was never in any danger to begin with. And they'll laugh about it, and Joey will say 'Liquor? I barely know 'er!' and she'll laugh so hard that tears will start to pour down her face. And then he'll laugh even harder, because he's just glad she's okay. And then…_

_And then, the voice behind the trashcan starts to cry._

_Serenity pauses. Even though every fiber of her being screams at her to keep running, nevertheless she finds herself entranced by that sound – that odd, breathless whimpering. It is the sound of someone who has reached their limit, the sound of someone who wants to throw in the towel but is too busy clinging to it for dear life to allow themselves to let go. It's like laughter gone horribly wrong. And somewhere deep inside, Serenity finds herself enormously moved by it. Perhaps she has inherited her mother's heart – the very thing that allowed her to fall in love with their father in the first place, despite his obvious flaws. Or perhaps she simply failed to inherit her father's stubbornness – the very thing that kept their parents together, long after their love had dwindled towards hatred. Whatever the case may be, she finds herself taking pity on the voice. And it is that same pity which causes her legs to freeze up on her._

"_Don't cry," she whispers, barely loud enough for herself to hear over the voice's incessant bawling. Taking a few timid steps toward the trashcan, she clears her throat. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." There is no reply; the voice just keeps blubbering away, like an overcome actress at a televised awards ceremony. Cautiously, she bends forward and picks up the discarded bottle; her fingertips seem to shrivel in disgust as they come in contact with the stain-ridden glass. She pulls a face as the stench of the drink reaches her nostrils, and carries the bottle in her outstretched hand over to where the rusty trashcan lies askew across the centre of the alleyway. "Here you go."_

_Then the crying stops, and a gloved hand reaches up as if to receive her offering. She can't bring herself to peer around the back of the trashcan. It was difficult enough just listening to him; looking at him would be like gazing upon grief itself. "Ahhh. Yesh. Much obliged, pretty," the voice purrs. With a single crooked finger, he starts to caress the bottle's circular rim. As she holds her breath, Serenity can feel herself slowly losing her grip, and she starts willing him to take the bottle. "Feelsh like I haven't had a drink in days." His fingers start to crawl up the side of the bottle, and for a moment it looks like he's going to take it. "Ain't had no company in a while, neither. Specially not female company."_

"_Please, sir, I… AH!"_

_When he suddenly grabs at her wrist, Serenity very nearly falls over the trashcan and into his waiting arms – but instead, she manages to kick out at the last second, driving the metal receptacle into the vagrant's wheezing face. She lands clumsily in a heap on the floor, her loose ginger hair spilling out behind her, and it takes her but a few seconds to regain her bearings while the voice behind the trashcan moans in distorted agony. Clambering to her feet, she staggers around the trashcan and runs toward daylight – toward the blaring sounds of traffic and the safety of civilization. She can see people up ahead – thin shadows marching past the alley, utterly oblivious to her cries for help. Either the traffic's too loud, or they just don't care enough to notice. She's about to scream at the top of her lungs, when she feels her foot being wrenched out from underneath her body and watches helplessly as the ground flies upto meether face._

"_No! No, let go of me!" she yells as his gloved fingers secure their grip on her ankle. She tries to lash out with all her might, her legs kicking wildly behind her as though she's swimming against some overwhelming current; but despite his claims of being tired, the man seems wide-awake now, and he shows no signs of letting go. She reaches out toward the light at the end of the alley. "Help! Somebody help me! Joey! JOEY!"_

_But big brother's nowhere to be found. He's much too busy brooding over Mai Valentine, or buying new cards with his buddies. He should be there for her. Maybe if their folks hadn't separated, he would be; but they did, and he isn't. And so Serenity is powerless to do anything but claw at the cement with her long, fragile fingernails and cry out his name over and over again. Then, when all hope seems lost and even she is beginning to doubt that her brother will come save her, she turns around and stares into the face of her attacker, determined to fight him off with her own bare hands if need be. But she can't. She's too shocked by what she sees to even form a fist._

_Sprawled on the floor, its hands locked tightly around her leg in a desperate, almost pleading manner, a black mannequin stares back at her. At least, she thinks it's a mannequin; but then again she's never heard of a mannequin that could move of its own accord before. It rolls onto its side, gazing at her with its blank, charcoal-textured face, and coughs out a cloud of warm, ashy phlegm. She's dumbstruck; something about the mannequin seems familiar, like she's seen it somewhere before. This person – for it must be a person, and not just some discarded wooden dummy – looks like someone she knows. Whoever it is, they seem to be in a lot of pain._

"_Se-ren-ity," the mannequin hisses. Despite its limbs being significantly thinner than her own, it has more than enough strength to pull her back into the shadows. Another plume of red-hot ash billows from its lungs, and Serenity has to close her eyes momentarily to keep from being blinded. "I need you. Help me, Serenity. Your brother has deserted us both!"_

_Serenity's eyes grow wide as saucers, and she whimpers in a tiny voice, "Yugi? Is… Is that you?"_

"_Yes!" the mannequin snarls, dragging her further down the alley as it crawls forward to meet her. The voice is barely recognisable, as though he's talking underwater, but it's definitely Yugi's. "Can you believe it, Serenity? He let this happen to me! First he neglects you, then he lets me die! Now look at me, Serenity! I'm so tired! DEAD tired, do you hear me? But no amount of liquor can fix this! I'm burning up inside! I'm burning up!"_

_The mannequin's stubby claws reach her face, and Serenity can feel the intense heat radiating off his body. Now they are face-to-face, and the mannequin's emaciated features seem to scowl down at her. "No! No, Yugi, let go! Please, it's too hot!"_

"_Don't you think I'd like to?" Yugi spits at her. "It's all Joey's fault! He could stop this at any time! If he were a good brother – if he were a true friend – then neither of us would be in this situation! But we are, Serenity. And now we're forced to suffer because of his incompetence!"_

"_No!" Serenity screeches. "No, Yugi! Let go! Let go! Joey! Joey, help me! Joey!"_

\--

"Joey!" a female voice cried out to him.

Joey's eyes snapped open. "_Serenity_?" He struggled to get to his feet, only for his injured leg to immediately give way beneath him. He fell to one knee, his shoulders rolling forward in a bowing motion as he reacted to the pain. "Argh! Dang it!" After the sharp twinge had subsided, he looked up to see the owner of the voice rushing haphazardly across the schoolyard toward him. It was Téa, closely followed by Tristan and Bakura. He sighed grimly. Of course it wasn't Serenity. It couldn't be her.

He'd been having the dream for over a week now, although it never came to him quite like this. Given what he had just witnessed, however, he supposed it shouldn't have come as too much of a shock. Typically it would end with Serenity being pulled kicking and screaming into the shadows by some unkempt homeless guy who bore more than a passing resemblance to his dad. This was the first time he'd ever envisioned Yugi in the role of his sister's assailant. If he weren't feeling quite so numb, he would have noticed the shivers running up and down his spine as he dwelt on it. Of course, he knew exactly what the dream meant – but at this very moment, he couldn't bear to think of anything except Yugi lying on that stretcher, and the many dark implications that now arose.

"Joey!" Téa called again feebly, her arms out in front of her as she charged through crowds of sombre students. When at last she reached where he was squatting, she slowed to a halt and looked to him with her imploring blue eyes. "Are, are you okay?" And then, without even giving him time to answer, she added: "Yugi? Was he…?"

"We saw the ambulance leave," said Tristan, who was just now catching up to her. Bakura barely avoided colliding with him before coming to a brisk stop. "Is he all right, dude? What happened?"

By now they'd all spotted the look on Joey's face, and although he couldn't see it himself, he knew he must have looked like hell. But if any of them had dared to say as much, he would have told them that 'hell' didn't even begin to describe how he felt. No, hell wasn't even in the same ballpark. "Guys, I… I don't know how to explain."

"Just tell us!" said Téa, her hands grasping desperately at thin air. He knew it was going to hit her worst of all. They'd be lucky if she stopped crying by the end of the day once she found out. "Is Yugi okay? He's okay, isn't he? _Is he?_"

"Téa," Tristan began, slowly lifting his hands to meet hers. He gently eased them down to either side of her, where they hung like empty swings on a forgotten playground. "It's all right. Maybe we should sit down, huh?"

"Yeah," Téa's head swirled as she attempted to nod in vague assent. "Good idea. Sitting down. I think I'm gonna do that."

They each formed a semi-circle around him. Tristan and Bakura helped Téa into a sitting position, and it struck Joey just how frail she appeared; it was as though the fear of losing Yugi had somehow aged her by about seventy years. Given her strict regime of dance classes, she was probably in better shape than the rest of them, so this sudden display of weakness proved more than a little disconcerting. He swallowed heavily. It hurt him just to think about what had happened to Yugi; how was he going to tell them about it? Where was he supposed to begin? How was he supposed to tell someone that their best friend in the whole world has passed away – and that it was all his fault? Would they ever be able to forgive him? Would he ever be able to forgive himself? He shook his head, ridding it of questions. It wasn't right to speculate now, not when his friends were counting on him to explain what went down. It didn't matter if they ended up hating him for it; they deserved to know the truth, and he had to be the one to tell them.

Joey cleared his throat. "Yugi," he said, noticing that Téa's whole body visibly flinched when he said the word. Two syllables had never before held such weight. Tristan reached over and cupped Téa's hand in his, squeezing it gently. He then indicated with a jerk of his head that Bakura should do likewise. They were like infants gathered together for story time, hoping against hope for a happy ending. "He was tryin' to rescue me. The same way you and me rescued him from that fire a while back, Tristan."

"I remember," Tristan said, firmly. The skin around his eyes seemed to tense up, like he was holding onto that memory in his mind. "Listen, if you're in bad shape, we should probably wait till after the EMTs check you out before…"

"No," Joey replied. He turned his head and peered over his collar at the two medical technicians heading their way, an empty stretcher – the one he'd vacated moments earlier – in tow. Once they got to him, they would doubtlessly insist on wheeling him back to the ambulance, whereupon he'd be driven to the hospital. Then it would be left to some faceless fireman or teacher to inform his friends of the awful truth. He couldn't let that happen. It had to be him. "No, I gotta do this."

"Oh, Joey," said Téa, her voice low but still holding together at the seams. All around them students were starting to disperse, almost as though they were afraid to catch whatever miserable sickness the four of them had contracted. "If he's okay, just tell us. I really can't bear to wonder anymore."

"Hear me out, Téa," he said, locking eyes with her. He could see the horror building within her, and it pained him to have to carry on. He knew how she felt about Yugi – about him _and_ the Pharaoh – so to her, it would be like having her heart broken twice over in cold, merciless succession. Joey grimaced; she was going to freak out big time. "The fire was bad. Real bad. I was barely conscious when he found me. He helped me up, but then I musta collapsed. Everything after that is sorta hazy."

"Can you remember any of it?" asked Bakura, leaning forward earnestly. "Anything at all?"

"We probably don't want to hear all the details," Tristan warned. He nodded his head at Joey, who responded in kind. "If it's going to be too upsetting…"

"No, Tristan," Téa said, her chin jutting forward as her teeth clenched together stoically. "I want to hear everything." Before Tristan could say anything, she continued, "If it weren't for some stupid teacher, I would have been in there with him. I would have seen it with my own eyes. We all would have. By all rights, we should know what happened in there, no matter how much it upsets us."

"All right," Tristan replied, his voice now bereft of doubt. "Just as long as you're okay with that."

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, her voice spiking for a second as she struggled to contain herself.

'_Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, kiddo!'_

Joey's heart gave a harsh tug inside his chest as these words filtered through his thoughts. He'd heard them from his father on many an occasion, around the time when he'd started attending those Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. He had no genuine interest in quitting the booze; he'd done so purely to appease Joey's mother. She had started to worry – or rather to _whine up a storm_, in the indelible words of his father – about his constant drinking, and so in order to shut her up he'd gone to the meetings and performed like a trooper. He stood up in front of other people, announced his awful habit to them, and sat back down again. Lather, rinse, repeat. And then on the way home, he would regularly stop to get gas and to pick up a six-pack of his precious cold ones. One night, Joey had dared to ask him why he insisted on showing up at the meetings if he wasn't going to stop drinking. The answer he received was a simple one. _Denial ain't just a river in Egypt!_

Truer words were never spoken.

Looking at Téa, he'd been reminded of that phrase – a phrase that seemed to mean so much more now, after all their experiences involving Millennium Items and ancient pharaohs. He hadn't been thinking about any of that when he looked at her, though. Instead, he thought about how she had always been the clear thinker of the group; she was the smart one who always knew the answers in class, and who always knew the right words to use to explain what was on her mind or in her heart. She had some kind of implicit awareness of things that Joey couldn't even begin to wrap his head around – like the Pharaoh, for instance. She'd been the first of them to truly understand and acknowledge what Yugi was going through with the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. If there could be a more difficult concept to grasp, Joey was hard-pressed to think of one. And yet here she was, denying the emotion that existed within every word she uttered. Denying that it terrified her that Yugi might not be okay. Denying what was right in front of her face, and wedged deep within her heart. It was so uncharacteristic of her that it chilled Joey to the core.

"Excuse me, sir," a voice interjected, "we're going to need you to hop on this stretcher."

"Buzz off," Joey growled under his breath. The EMTs had dragged the stretcher into their circle of four, blocking Bakura's face from view. "We're havin' a private conversation here."

"You can talk to your friends once we've cleared you for injuries," came the placid response. "Right now it's important that we…"

"Right now it's important that you give him some space!" Tristan stood up at once. Joey was saddened to see Téa's hand fall limp by her side once Tristan's had left it. "Just give us a minute, that's all he needs."

The two EMTs, their faces barely distinguishable from one another, exchanged glances and nodded. "Okay, one minute. But he needs medical attention."

_What I need is the last hour of my life back,_ Joey thought distantly as the stretcher was gradually carted away. Satisfied, Tristan sat down once more and looked to him with eager eyes. Joey took a deep breath and continued, "I think the ceiling collapsed on top of us. It musta done, because one minute I was on the floor, then the next Yugi was draggin' me out from under a pile of rubble. He looked like he was in bad shape, and I was pretty out of it. I started blatherin' on about random stuff like Duelist Kingdom…"

Serenity. He'd been talking about Serenity. About helping his sister.

"Why would you do that?" Bakura asked, innocently.

"I was pretty far gone at the time, Bakura," Joey reminded him. "Like I said, I fainted and then the ceiling fell on top of me. In that kinda condition, I probably woulda talked his ear off about Pegasus and Battle City till the cows came home."

"Then what happened?" asked Tristan. All this time, Téa hadn't said a word. "How'd you get out?"

"Yugi, he…" said Joey, sorting through his jumbled memories. "He was gonna pull me to safety – said we were gonna get out together. But I think somethin' was wrong. He seemed kinda reluctant, like he'd forgotten something."

"What was it, do you suppose?" asked Bakura.

Joey shrugged. "Whatever it was, I guess he musta put it to the back of his mind, 'cause we kept on goin'. It was tough; I had to concentrate on breathin' just to stay with it, and I thought for sure Yugi was gonna pass out from the heat, not to mention the effort it took to carry me around. But he didn't, and the next thing I knew there were these guys in firemen's uniforms waitin' to take me off his hands." For a second, he actually saw their faces light up with hope, and it made him sigh. He dreaded having to snuff out that brilliant candle. "But Yugi, he musta got left behind or somethin'. Maybe the ceiling collapsed again, I don't know. Alls I do know is he wasn't there when I came around."

"Well then Yugi must be okay!" Téa declared in faux ecstasy. "I mean, if you…" She trailed off once she noticed the steely look Joey was giving her, but it was too late; Joey knew full well how that sentence was supposed to pan out. _If you survived, then why couldn't Yugi? So where is he, Joey? Why isn't he here talking to us instead of you?_ "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Téa," he replied. Giving her a moment to compose herself, he continued. "Then after I woke up, I talked to you guys and… well…"

He was silent for a good few minutes, the EMTs having apparently allowed him some slight reprieve. While Téa and Tristan waited for him to continue with bated breath, Bakura was another story. He leaned forward and asked the burning question, "What was it you saw, Joey?"

"Hold on, Bakura!" Tristan hissed. "We should at least wait until he's good and ready before…"

"Bakura's right," said Joey, cutting Tristan off abruptly. "It's better if I tell you now. There's no real sense delayin' it. Besides, I don't think I'm ever gonna be good and ready for this."

"Joey," Téa whispered hoarsely. "You can't mean…"

Joey blanched. He had been so sure of himself up till now. He had been confident that he would be able to tell them how Yugi had sacrificed himself to save his life. How he had died for no good reason. How the single unifying bond that linked the four of them together – after all, Joey hadn't been friends with Téa or Bakura until Yugi came into his life and changed everything – had been shattered. But now he was starting to think differently. Now he was having second thoughts. Just like Bakura's favourite Duel Monsters card, he was experiencing a sudden and unwanted change of heart.

He remembered how he'd been acting back in the classroom – the way he'd laughed off Téa's friendship speeches and told Tristan where he could stick his stupid hairdo. He hadn't really meant any of it, but that didn't make it meaningless. He had lashed out at them, and – as he always used to say – when Joey Wheeler lashes out at someone, he knows how to make it count. And it counted, all right. He could see in their faces that it counted. They remembered the way he'd treated them; it wasn't the sort of thing you just up and forgot in less than an hour. And now Yugi was gone. Because of him, Yugi was gone. He'd spat in their faces, and then taken away their best friend for good measure. They were going to hate his stinking guts for this. But what else could he do? Lie? Pretend Yugi was okay? Act like none of this was his fault? Deny everything he knew to be the truth?

_It ain't just a river in Egypt, kiddo._

No. No, he couldn't do that. His friends deserved the truth – and if they chose to hate him for it, then that was their prerogative. They deserved the truth, and for all he knew he deserved their unbridled hatred.

_Fair trade_, he thought with a nod.

Then at last he said aloud, "I'm sorry, guys – but Yugi's gone."

As he allowed the words to sink in, the world around him changed. His throat tightened as the air grew thin, and for the first time since he'd been stirred from his waking dream he realised that he'd been breathing through his mouth the whole time. Colours all but vanished; the luminous blue halo of the fire truck became a pale shadow that drifted over their faces, turning their shocked expressions into masks of despair. Even the sounds became dim; the roar of the fire had long since dissipated, leaving only the anxious murmur of pupils and the occasional bursts of rushing water for ambient noise. Everything was out of focus, like he was watching it all through a camera lens rather than his own two eyes. If only he'd been offered that luxury.

_This is what a world without Yugi Moto feels like,_ he thought. And he knew, judging by their faces, that the others were all thinking much the same thing.

"Oh my," said Bakura as he clasped his hands to his mouth, trying in vain to surmise what they were all experiencing. "This is just…"

Tristan didn't say a thing. The moment Joey finished talking, his shoulders had slumped forward in defeat, and his eyebrows began twitching toward one another as though they were trying to meet up in the centre of his brow. Joey had never seen him cry; he doubted it was a conscious decision on Tristan's part, the guy just wasn't the emotional type – except for where Serenity was concerned, of course. But if there had ever been a moment in Tristan Taylor's life when tears seemed like the only viable response, this would've undoubtedly been it. In fact, if Téa hadn't spoken out, he would've expected to see some major waterworks from the guy.

"No!" Téa shouted, startling Bakura half to death. Tristan looked up with concern, but remained silent. Only Joey remained unfazed by her outburst; after all, he had long since predicted it. "Joey, you mustn't say that! That's not… It's… It can't…!"

"It is," Joey replied helplessly, a lump shifting toward his throat as if to announce its imminent residency.

Téa's features froze; her ice-blue eyes became bulbous and bloodshot, and her jaw dangled loosely like a disused cat flap. Even her breathing had stopped; the telltale curve of her chest no longer rose and fell every few seconds. Joey wouldn't have been surprised if, were he to check her pulse at that very moment, her heart had also been silenced. It was as though the knowledge of Yugi's passing had eclipsed whatever tenuous spark of life there still existed inside of her. Only her hands continued to move, as she drew them up to her face and clawed softly at her cheeks. "Joey…!"

And then, she did an entirely unexpected thing.

Joey had anticipated the worst. He expected her to go on a massive emotional tirade – to scream at him the way she had once screamed at Seto Kaiba back in Duelist Kingdom when the young billionaire had been blind to Yugi's inner turmoil. He expected she would lash out at him with whatever strength she still retained, and then their friendship would be over. Not just his friendship with Téa, but his friendships with Tristan, and Bakura – every important relationship he'd ever forged would be gone in an instant. Because Yugi had left them, and he was the keystone that held them all together as both a team and as individuals. But to Téa, he was even more than that. He was everything – and he had been taken away from her. Joey expected her to explode.

But she didn't.

Instead, she hugged him.

"Oh God, Joey!" she wailed, wrapping her arms tightly around him and burying her face in his jacket. Joey nearly fell over backwards when she collided into him, and he felt the telltale throb in his leg rise up once more, but he managed to remain balanced long enough to receive her embrace. "How? How can this be happening?"

"I don't know," said Joey, shaking his head in disbelief. He truly didn't. Then, to his surprise, he felt another arm hesitantly sliding its way around his shoulders. Turning to one side, he saw Tristan had joined them both in a group hug. Usually he would've elbowed Tristan in the ribs, urging him to keep his hands to himself – but not this time.

"Yugi!" Téa's voice was muffled as she bit into the fabric of his uniform, but Joey understood her perfectly. It was the last word he heard from her for a long while. They just sat there holding onto one another, not wanting to let go. And there were no bitter accusations, no guilt trips or hard feelings between them. The only emotions they felt were twofold – loss and love. Love for a boy they knew so well, and the overwhelming loss that he could not be there with them as they held each other and thought only of him.

Little did they know, he was with them the whole time – and he shared in both their loss and their love.

They just couldn't see him.


	7. Chapter Six: Foreshadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Disclaimer: I don't own _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ or any of its characters. _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi.**
> 
> **A/N:** Just a quick intro this time. This chapter's set in the spirit world, so I wanted to give it a sort of surreal quality. Hopefully it's not too baffling or convoluted. Tried to lighten things up a little, too. This may come as a surprise to you, but I'm not a very morbid guy. Angst isn't really my thing.
> 
> Anyway, try to enjoy it. I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep in a coffin until the moon rises.
> 
> What?

_The Pharaoh was right,_ thought Yugi._ This place looks just like the Shadow Realm._

Yugi felt his blood run cold as the memories of his friends were immediately overrun by fear – fear of being back inside that interminable darkness. It would be wrong to suggest that the Shadow Realm was uninviting. Considering the number of times Yugi had been drawn there, it often seemed a little _too_ inviting. The problem was that once you had accepted its invitation, there was then no clear-cut way to escape its seemingly limitless confines. Except, of course, by taking part in a potentially deadly Shadow Game – and Yugi knew from experience how dangerous those could be. This place – the '_spirit nexus_', the Pharaoh had called it – shared more than a few passing similarities to the Shadow Realm, and as such it caused Yugi's skin to crawl.

For starters, it was unnaturally dark. At first this might have seemed like a rather vague connection – after all, given a limited lighting budget, an indoor children's petting zoo could be considered 'unnaturally dark' – but the more Yugi absorbed his new surroundings, the more he realised that this was the strongest connection of all. For whenever he found himself trapped in the Shadow Realm at the behest of some deluded maniac, one thing had always struck Yugi as being particularly odd – the sheer absence of light. Not one single light source existed there for as far as the eye could see, and yet Yugi _had_ been able to see with absolute clarity. Even the text on his Duel Monsters cards – which some people found hard to read even in broad daylight – had been perfectly legible. It was as though the darkness provided some abstract form of illumination. As though the darkness itself was the Shadow Realm's light.

Here things were no different. Despite the ruddy clouds churning in all directions, practically eradicating all sense of perspective, Yugi found that he could see pretty much everything there was to see within the spirit nexus. He could see the funnel-like opening in the sky from which there cascaded innumerable ribbons of purple energy. He could see the way they spiraled down through the air, weaving this way and that and occasionally coiling around one another like the decorations Grandpa used to hang in the windows whenever there was an especially popular sale on at the game shop. He could see the way they curled upwards at the bottom, glinting like soft hooks, and he could see how each ribbon was inextricably linked to its neighbour – threaded together like the strands of an enormous cosmic quilt.

He could see millions of portals – not unlike the one he'd used to leave his own personal '_spirit level_' – spanning the gulf of the nexus. They were rectangular – a surprisingly rigid shape in the midst of such turmoil – and their sizes varied. Some looked large enough to fit two people at a time, whereas others looked like they'd pose a problem to anyone who hadn't struggled through years of rigorous limbo training. Not only that, but the portals were shifting. They didn't actually move; they always hung in the same place, regardless of how improbable it seemed. Instead they would fade, sometimes so quickly that Yugi would strive not to blink so he could watch it happen, and then reappear moments later as though the laws of physics hadn't just been turned upside-down and inside-out. They didn't simply twinkle out of existence either; the air surrounding them seemed to fold in on itself, as though a pair of unseen hands had decided to close the shutters on them for the night. It seemed so random, and yet somehow Yugi knew there was a very precise function to it all. But he didn't have time to wonder about that now – because he'd seen something that interested him far more than a few billion magical floating portals.

He'd seen other people.

It was a wonder, even when taking his fantastic surroundings into account, that his eyes hadn't been drawn straight to them. After all, aside from the spirit of the Puzzle, these were the first people he'd seen since his death. But then, it wasn't as though they were all huddled together in a clearly defined group – quite the opposite, in fact. They were spread throughout the nexus, thousands upon thousands of them, each just gawking at the portals with slack-jawed marvel the way Joey would often stare at the TV whenever a food commercial was being shown. Same glazed expression, same outstretched arms. The only difference was that, unlike Joey, these people weren't sitting down – they were hovering in mid-air.

Yugi frowned for a moment, and then looked toward the ground – only to find that it didn't actually exist. In its place, and far below him, there were only clouds. "Whoa!"

"Careful, Yugi!" He felt the spirit's hands latching onto him just as he started to fall. He thrashed his legs as the spirit pulled him back up. "You know, it helps if you don't look down."

"A little warning would've been nice, spirit," Yugi chuckled nervously. The spirit's hands went lax, and Yugi turned around to meet his gaze. Without even realising it, he had begun to fly. "We made it, didn't we? We made it through to the nexus."

"We made it," said the spirit. He smiled through his eyes at the boy. "More importantly, _you_ made it, Yugi. Remember – I've been a spirit ever since we've known each other. This sort of thing comes naturally to me."

"Oh really?" Yugi asked. "Is that why I felt your hand start to tremble when we were drifting?" He floated a little higher, his knowing grin penetrating the spirit's dour defiance. "I think someone was a little nervous!"

"If I was nervous," the spirit conceded, "it was because _you _weren't holding my hand tightly enough. I was afraid we might get separated. I didn't want that to happen again."

"This flying thing's the coolest!" Yugi laughed, choosing to ignore the spirit's sullen words in favour of a few lopsided mid-air cartwheels. "I bet I could do a hundred of these."

"You could," the spirit said coolly, "but I doubt you'd enjoy the after-effects quite so much."

"Really? Can spirits throw up?"

"Do you really wish to find out?"

Yugi cringed and came to an abrupt stop. "I guess not." The spirit seemed to suppress a smirk as Yugi shook his head comically in order to regain his bearings. "Well, first order of business – I think we should go talk to those people over there."

"That may not be a good idea," the spirit advised.

"Why not?" asked Yugi. "They're spirits, right? So they might know how to get back to the world of the living. You said one of them told you how to find me, didn't you?"

"One of them did, yes," the spirit replied. "The others, however, were far less helpful."

"What do you mean?"

The spirit frowned, turning something over in his head as he spoke. "Hmm. Perhaps it would be easier if you discovered for yourself."

"Discovered wha–?" Yugi began, only for the Pharaoh to suddenly link arms with him and take off in the direction of the other drifters. Yugi couldn't help but gasp; he was so fast! "Whoa, hey! Spirit, you know I'm not gonna fall, right? You don't have to hold on to me the whole time."

A shadow passed across the spirit's face as he replied. "I know."

Regardless, he didn't seem to want to let go until finally they came upon a group of spirits. There were five of them in total; all gathered together like pigeons in the park scavenging for breadcrumbs. Yugi felt a strange blend of relief and dismay when they failed to react to their arrival; he had expected them to panic and scatter in all directions, or at the very least raise their eyebrows in disapproval. Instead they simply stared vacantly into space, the way people do when they're waiting for a bus and they want to pretend they don't notice one another.

Yugi felt himself being ushered forward, and cleared his throat. "Uh, excuse me?" No response. "Hi. I'm, uh, I'm Yugi Moto. I died recently. I'm assuming you guys did too?" Yugi snorted. As far as introductions went, that was probably one of most bizarre. It also didn't help matters that his audience seemed to be ignoring every word he said. "Well, of course you did. Why else would you be here, right? Unless you're a big fan of rivers, it's not exactly vacation material."

One of the spirits, a boy not much older than Yugi, craned his neck around. He was wearing a baggy shirt with the words '_R U Experienced?_' on the front and a pair of equally baggy jeans that seemed to be trying to swallow his feet so that only the pointed tips of his shoes were showing. His face reminded Yugi of a picture he'd seen in one of Téa's magazines, from an article regarding some sort of teen heart-throb's scandalous behaviour (Joey had taken one look at it and announced bluntly: "Whoa, he's stoned!"). Yugi hadn't understood the picture, but he understood this boy's face.

_The lights are on, _he thought,_ but nobody's home._

"Hey dude," the boy's voice was on the verge of breaking, and for a fleeting moment it dawned on Yugi that he had died before making it all the way through puberty. "Isn't it the coolest? School's out, man! School's outta here like last year!"

"School?" said Yugi. "I don't–"

"Principal always got on my case," the boy continued unabated. "Said I was a lowlife. Pfft! Lowlife! At least I don't work at a school!" He spat out this last word as though it were synonymous with _concentration camp_. "Don't gotta worry about that loser anymore, though. I'm living the good life. School's out, baby!"

Yugi fidgeted anxiously. "If you could maybe explain…"

"Gotta remember the milk," another spirit chimed in, this one a middle-aged woman with bleary, listless eyes and a saffron handbag clutched underneath her slight chest. "Remember the milk this time. And cigarettes! Don't bother coming back if you don't have cigarettes. Yes, dear. Sorry, dear."

"Spirit," Yugi whispered as he began to back away from them. "What's wrong with them? Why are they…?"

"My best guess," said the Pharaoh, taking his place beside Yugi, "is that they aren't actually aware that they are dead."

"What?" asked Yugi. Having lost interest in him, the two chattering spirits gradually fell silent again. "But how can that be?"

"You tell me," the spirit replied. From anyone else, such a sentence would sound snippy and churlish – but his voice was bereft of both traits. "When I first found you in this world, you didn't seem to understand what had happened to you. It wasn't until I explained things that you realised you were no longer alive."

Yugi grimaced. "You're right! I didn't know I was dead! I couldn't even remember what happened." He looked over at the five dormant spirits and sighed. "I was just like them." Then, something occurred to him. "Wait, how come you could remember?"

"Hmm?"

"When I died, I forgot everything," Yugi explained. It was almost frightening how quickly he'd come to accept his untimely death. He imagined that, without the spirit of the Puzzle around, things would have been different in that regard. "I couldn't remember my duel with Joey, I couldn't remember the fire… But you could. You remembered everything. Otherwise you wouldn't have been able to tell me about it afterwards. Why is that?"

"Yugi," the spirit smiled wryly. "Must I keep reminding you? My death is nothing recent. I've been a spirit for thousands of years. My soul was released from the Millennium Puzzle, but all my memories – my recent memories, that is – remained intact."

"Oh," Yugi blushed. "Right." Regret washed over him like a vicious oil spill as he realised that the spirit – his partner – would never know the truth about his past. There was nobody around to fill in the gaps in his memory, nobody to put the puzzle of his existence back together again. In life, the spirit had supplied Yugi with a truly noble purpose – but being with him here in death, it only made him feel useless. "I guess there's really no point asking around for directions, then." He turned away from the spirit and looked toward the central part of the nexus, where the fountain of purple energy spilled endlessly downwards like some overly extravagant wall hanging. "What is that thing, anyway?"

"I'm not sure," said the spirit.

Yugi waited for the spirit to posit a few theories, but none came. "You're not sure? Whatever happened to 'I've been a spirit longer than you have, so I know all about this stuff?'"

"Some things elude even me," was the response. If Yugi didn't know better, he would have sworn blind that it had been sarcasm. "I first noticed it when I was searching for you. I would have investigated it, but…"

"But?" asked Yugi.

"But I was searching for you," the spirit repeated flatly.

"Well, now you've found me," Yugi shrugged, "so how about we check it out?"

"You think it might provide us with an exit?" asked the spirit, already taking Yugi's arm in his.

"I sure hope so," Yugi replied. "I don't wanna be stuck here the rest of my…" He paused, not knowing how to finish the sentence. He glanced over his shoulder at the five lost souls behind them, still floating perpetually without a purpose. Of all the words he could use to describe them, 'alive' wasn't one of them. "I don't wanna be stuck here."

"I won't let that happen, Yugi," the spirit assured him. Yugi felt the contents of his stomach lurch as he took off once more, and watched as the five inert figures receded into blurry specks on the bleak horizon.

_See you in the funny pages,_ he thought.

* * *

In math class, Yugi had sometimes heard the teacher use the phrase 'the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.' But even though they were traveling as fast as the spirit could fly and directly toward it, it still took them over an hour to reach the fountain. When Yugi commented on this, the Pharaoh only reminded him that time worked quite differently in the spirit world – although Yugi had a distinct feeling that there was more to it than that. There were times when they should have been making significant progress, and yet the fountain would actually seem to retreat as though some hidden force had been set against them, physically stretching the distance between them and their target. It reminded Yugi of his spirit level, and of the way the river had somehow pulled him back toward it even though he had been walking in completely the opposite direction. In this world, it seemed there were no straight lines.

They had reached the bottom, where most of the energy ribbons seemed to curl outwards. Even up close, Yugi still had no clue as to what it was supposed to be. It put him in mind of a giant maypole, except the pole itself appeared to be missing. Each ribbon was enveloped in a strange, glossy membrane, almost as though they'd been individually laminated, and within them Yugi could see water flowing like blood through the veins of some impossibly translucent creature. Where the water was coming from, and where it was flowing to, Yugi couldn't be sure. What he did know for certain, however, was that the ribbons were moving. Not just moving – they were _growing_.

"Be careful, Yugi," the spirit warned. Yugi had decided to take a closer look, and so the spirit had reluctantly been forced to let go of him for the time being. He had spent the subsequent five minutes calling after him like a mother worried about her child playing near the road, even though they were only a few feet apart. "We don't know what it is; it might be dangerous."

"I don't think it is," Yugi replied earnestly. If there was one thing he'd learned in all his years of dueling, it was to trust in the Heart of the Cards – or, failing that, to trust in his instincts. Right now, his instincts were telling him that he was safe enough. "I think it's good."

"Good?"

"Yeah," Yugi nodded, vaguely aware that his teeth were on edge as he drifted closer to one of the ribbons. His whole body was starting to feel numb, and there was a tinny warbling sound echoing in his head as though someone nearby was blowing a dog whistle. "It's _good_, all right."

"What do you mean?" asked the spirit. When Yugi failed to respond, his voice became sharp, "Yugi!"

"I'm not sure," was Yugi's less than enthusiastic reply. In all honesty, he hadn't the foggiest idea what he'd meant by it – but he knew it was the truth. He'd felt similarly about the faces he'd seen in the river, with their mouths eternally open in silent laughter – and it struck him that he'd also felt the same way about the Millennium Puzzle when he'd first solved it. "I'm going to try touching one of the ribbons."

"What?" the spirit was audibly shaken. When he next spoke, he sounded much nearer. "Yugi, don't!"

"Don't worry, spirit. It won't hurt me." This part he didn't know for sure, but he didn't much care either way. He just wanted to touch it, the same way he'd wanted to be one of those faces in the river. Floating towards the shimmering tip of the nearest ribbon, he reached out with both hands and closed his eyes. The noise in his head had become a high-pitched whine, like the sound the TV sometimes made whenever the transmission cut off and Grandpa had to get out of his chair and repair it with a good solid fist. It sounded almost angelic. "Beautiful...!"

"YUGI!"

His palms came into contact with something wet; it felt like passing his hands under the cold tap in a morning when he was still half-asleep.

And then, the pictures came.

A multitude of images flooded Yugi's vision, all brightly lit and crystal clear. He wanted to blink them away, but his eyes were already closed. It was like staring into the lens of a movie projector, except these images were being projected directly into his brain. He had told the spirit it wouldn't hurt him, and he had been right – but he was sure that, had he not been pulled away in the nick of time, his mind would have collapsed from sheer exhaustion. He was rescued, however, as the spirit gripped him by the waist and pulled him back as hard as he could. When he recovered from the visual onslaught, Yugi cried out faintly and buried his head in his hands.

"Are you okay?" the spirit asked; all traces of frustration had long since vanished from his voice and were replaced by a deep concern. He turned Yugi around in mid-air so that he could hold the boy to him, slipping downwards so that he could rest his chin against his forehead and mutter soft words of encouragement. "It's alright. You were very brave. A little too brave, perhaps. But brave nevertheless."

"I saw…" Yugi began. What had he seen, exactly? It had all seemed so crucial at the time, but now he was struggling to recall even a single element of what he'd witnessed. "I saw… so much."

"What was it you saw, Yugi?" the spirit asked with genuine interest. Then he rephrased the question. "What did it show you?"

"It showed me…" Yugi frowned. Part of him wanted to touch the ribbon again, just to remind himself – but he knew he would lose himself in the process. No human being – living or dead – would be able to withstand it twice. "It showed me everything."

"Everything?" the spirit's face grew taut. "What do you mean?"

"Everything! I mean, everything!" said Yugi. "As in the complete opposite of nothing!"

"Calm down…"

"I can't!" Yugi shouted, his hands covering his ears as though he were afraid the pressure might cause his gray matter to leak out through them. "I can only remember bits and pieces… little things… trivial things…"

"That's good," said the spirit.

"No! No, it's not! It's anything but good! Spirit – when I touched that thing, I experienced what it must be like to live a hundred thousand lives. For a fraction of a second, I could see beyond the infinite; I looked through the eyes of every man, woman, and child who ever lived – who ever will live! I saw the past, the present, and the future all at once. And I almost understood it, spirit! I almost got what it all meant! And now it's GONE!"

"Yugi, stop!" the spirit lunged forward and held him forcefully by the collar before he could make another rush for the ribbon. For a brief second, Yugi considered struggling. "What you experienced, I can't possibly hope to understand. But neither can you, Yugi! Do you hear me? Neither can you!"

Yugi opened his mouth to argue, to tell the spirit that if anyone could solve this, he was the one to do it. He had a knack for solving puzzles, and this was no different. It was like one of those _magic eye_ games, where you held an abstract image up to your face and then crossed your eyes in just the right way so that it formed a clear, concise solution. Nobody else he knew could do it; Joey had given up after his first attempt, and Tristan once spent an entire day with his eyes crossed, determined to get the better of the game. Téa didn't even try; she'd said it would only make her look silly. Yugi hadn't thought so. In fact, he thought she would've solved it right off the bat. After all, if she could see through him, then she could see through anything.

"Téa," he murmured, his body falling slack.

"That's right, Yugi," the spirit sighed helplessly. "Your friends. Remember your friends."

"Spirit," Yugi looked up. "Thank you."

The Pharaoh merely nodded. "Just as long as you're okay, Yugi."

"I am now," Yugi braved a smile. He turned and looked at the fountain, and he realised it was nothing like those _magic eye_ games. It was too important. "What on earth do you suppose it is?"

"Life," the spirit said, matter-of-factly. Yugi's head spun back around at this. "Are you so shocked? You said as much yourself."

"Did I?" he asked. "I… I don't remember…"

"You said you saw through the eyes of the living," the spirit reminded him. "Through the eyes of those who have lived, and those who shall eventually live. This must be the life source. The spring from which all souls originate."

"Really?" asked Yugi. "Wow. I mean, I guess I've heard the expression, but I didn't think it would end up being quite so literal." Yugi mentally scolded himself. How could he possibly doubt it – here, in the afterlife of all places? How could he doubt anything anymore? He was still seeing things from the point of view of a child with nothing to more to worry about than doing his homework and finding the free time to save the world. "Spirit! Does that mean we can use it to travel back…?"

The spirit looked at him contemplatively, and somehow Yugi already knew the answer. "No."

"But… But what you said–"

"I said it was the source of all life," said the spirit, "and as such, Yugi, we cannot tamper with it. If we did, we would be putting life itself in jeopardy."

"You're right," Yugi replied, his voice a lot less convincing than the words it used. "It's far too important. We'll just have to find another way."

"I'm sorry, Yugi," said the Pharaoh, solemnly.

"Don't be," said Yugi. He gestured wildly at the shadowed landscape. "I'm sure one of those portals will take us to my friends. Just a question of trial and error, right? And there can only be, what, about ninety nine trillion portals out there? Hey, but don't feel bad… We've all the time in the world!"

"Yugi!" the spirit snarled, and Yugi instantly felt horrible for lacing his words with such venomous sarcasm. "Don't you think I feel bad enough already? Do you want me to beg your forgiveness? Do you _really_ want that?" Yugi was frozen stiff with intimidation; even if he'd found himself with the nerve to speak, he wouldn't have used it. "Because I will, if you wish it. This is my fault, after all."

"Your fault?" Yugi gasped. "Spirit, what are you–?"

Before either of them could even attempt to comprehend what the other was feeling, the air beside them tore itself open to reveal yet another portal. Yugi was taken aback; this was the first time he'd seen one of them at such a short distance. Sure, he'd left his spirit level through something very similar, but at that time he'd been focusing all of his thoughts on his friends, and so he hadn't really been paying much attention.

Now, however, he was free to examine the portal. It was about the Pharaoh's height – perhaps a little taller, and certainly a lot broader. Its dimensions were otherwise perfectly proportioned; Yugi had expected to notice some slight inconsistency in the way the portals had been shaped, but it was as though it had been conceived by the most finicky of astral architects. Other than simply being a hole in the fabric of space, the only odd thing – or things, as the case may be – about it were the ripples it generated. The shadows surrounding the portal seemed to bend, like some unbelievably strong force was struggling to hold it together. It looked about as stable as the diorama Joey once made as part of a school science project, which had collapsed almost as soon as he unveiled it. Yugi, always the quick thinker, had announced it as being Joey's attempt to illustrate the effects of gravity. It earned him a C.

"Yugi…!" the spirit said, breathlessly. It was a rare and frightening thing to hear him so shaken. "Look!"

Yugi performed a double take, glancing from the portal to the spirit and then back again in quick succession. From the way the spirit had reacted, he had half-expected to see Joey, Tristan, and Téa standing on the other side of the portal, looking to him with open arms and beaming, cherubic faces. But they were nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was presented with an ocean – not a trace of land as far as the eye could see. The sky overhead reminded Yugi of every good bruise he'd ever received, and far beneath it there cruised a rudimentary fishing boat. When he peered, Yugi could just make out the vessel's occupant, lying on the deck with his head cast heavenwards. His eyes were closed, but he seemed more meditative than asleep. The wake of the setting sun danced across his abdomen, highlighting the tanned texture of his bare torso. He wasn't Joey. He wasn't Tristan. He certainly wasn't Téa.

But Yugi knew him all the same.

"Mako Tsunami…?" Yugi gaped. "But… But he's not dead! I saw him in Domino the other week; he said he'd come ashore to film some commercials." Mako had a sponsorship deal with one of the local fishmongers, and ever since the Battle City tournament he'd been featuring in a number of excruciatingly awful TV spots. It seemed his accent didn't really lend itself to the catchphrase: '_They're fishalicious!_' "Why does he have a spirit level?"

"I can only think of one explanation," the spirit came forward. "This portal must lead to the world of the living."

Had he not been floating, Yugi would have jumped for joy. "Really?" He grew more subdued when he spotted the spirit's bleak expression. "What makes you so certain?"

"Do you see a river?" the Pharaoh's face inclined. Had Yugi studied it, he would have found no trace of the anguish he'd been exhibiting just a few short minutes ago. "There is an ocean, yes, but… no river."

"Maybe there isn't always a river?" Yugi suggested, not entirely sure why he was arguing this point. He wanted it to be a way back home. He needed it to be. But he also didn't want to wind up in another spirit level – even if it belonged to a close friend of his.

"There is always a river," the spirit replied with such conviction that Yugi thought his eyes might start welling up. "The river is what connects everything. The river binds our spirits together, keeps them stable even when our mortal bodies have forsaken us. It flows through us all."

"Huh," Yugi remarked. He tried to remember the last time he'd seen a river in the real world; it was harder than he imagined. "Let's just hope it never gets polluted, huh? Or else we'd all be in big trouble."

The spirit looked at him. "Let us hope not, Yugi."

"Spirit, I was kidding," Yugi stammered. He saw the confusion in the spirit's eyes, and decided to explain himself. "It helps me to cope with what's happened. With what's still happening. Don't worry; you don't have to laugh."

"Then I won't," the spirit said. In situations like this, the Pharaoh rarely displayed his sense of humour – although he definitely had one; Yugi had felt it on numerous occasions, tickling away in the back of his mind, sometimes for the most unexpected reasons. In a way, it made him seem rather like Joey's antithesis. Joey was always ready with a gag or three, _especially_ during a crisis. Yugi missed that about him. Right now, he missed it a lot. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

Yugi had barely finished speaking when he too started to hear it. A voice, buzzing away faintly like someone was listening to loud music through a set of tiny headphones, coming from the portal. The closer Yugi got to it – which wasn't too close, as he'd learned his lesson well from touching the ribbon – the clearer it became. It didn't get any louder; it just became easier to pick out certain words. It reminded him of how Téa would sometimes show him foreign movies without subtitles, and challenge him to decipher as many words as he could in a given scene. He'd enjoyed it at the time because it was a game, and because she was there with him. This, however, wasn't quite so much fun. It was actually rather unnerving.

_… –ing for you…_

_… have to keep…_

_…_ _can't give…_

_… are you?_

_… you, father…_

"Father!" Yugi announced, as though he'd just won the lottery. "He said father!"

"I heard it too," said the spirit.

"It sounds like Mako's voice," Yugi continued, his eyes never leaving the nautical duelist, "but he isn't saying anything. Do you think…?" Now it was Yugi's turn to postulate on the cryptic workings of the spirit nexus. "Are those his thoughts we're hearing? They sound like–"

He had been about to compare it to the way he and the Pharaoh used to communicate through their now obsolete mind-link, when suddenly he caught movement in the corner of his eye. He turned from the portal and found himself confronted with yet another spirit. This one was built like an ox, barrel-chested and with legs like meaty balustrades; he floated laboriously through the air and very nearly staggered into the Pharaoh, but Yugi nimbly pulled his partner out of the way just in time. As the newcomer passed between them, Yugi could see his eyes were damp; but they weren't swimming with tears – instead it looked like the whites of his eyes had burst, flooding his sockets with a sorrowful emptiness. His hair was a single streak of ebony, and his jaw came forward like a character in one of those graphic novels about superheroes Joey was always reading. Yugi had never seen this man before, but he knew at once who it was.

"Mako's father!" he cried, and his voice seemed to carry all the way through the portal and out into that expanse of sea and sky. He allowed himself to breathe once he was sure Mako hadn't heard him. "He's a spirit too?"

"Mako did say he lost his father," the spirit of the Puzzle replied. They watched silently as the spirit of Mako's father drifted through the portal and appeared on the other side. Yugi couldn't help but sigh as he watched him float across the waves – his feet occasionally dipping beneath the surface and then coming up dry as a bone – in the direction of his son. "No wonder he drifts."

"What?"

"Could there be any finer example," the spirit said softly, "of things left undone?"

Yugi swallowed. "Oh. Right." He watched for a while as Mako's father stood watchfully over the reclining fisherman, his brow glistening as though it were crying the tears that his eyes no longer could. "Do you think he knows?"

"No," the spirit replied. It was a question that could apply to either of them, but Yugi hadn't needed to specify.

"I can't believe it," Yugi said. He wanted to fall to his knees, but there was no ground to support him. "I guess… I guess I always thought maybe Mako's dad would turn up someday. That he had just been washed away, like in some bad daytime soap opera, and he'd come back with a different accent and a whole new wardrobe. And maybe Mako would have to teach him how to fish all over again."

"You always hated those soap operas," the Pharaoh remembered out loud.

"I did, didn't I?" Yugi wiped his eyes absently. "But still… I always held out hope for Mako."

"Hmm," the spirit lowered his eyes, and then he said an awful thing – but he said it so openly that it could only be the truth. "I never did."

"You never…?" Yugi was momentarily aghast, but once he looked at the spirit's face and saw that there was nothing bitter or spiteful there, he knew he hadn't meant it to be so harsh. He just saw things differently – always had done, even when they were bonded together through the same host body by the Millennium Puzzle. Now they were separate entities, and the Pharaoh was free to express things like hopelessness and cynicism without reflecting poorly on the boy known as Yugi Moto. In some ways, this seemed even more tragic than Mako's plight. "Oh, spirit. I'm so sorry."

The spirit rolled his shoulders stiffly – the regal equivalent of a shrug. "You know what's even worse?"

"What?" Yugi was almost too horrified to ask.

"I secretly enjoyed watching those soap operas."

The spirit smiled, and Yugi smiled right back. "They weren't so bad, I guess."

"We'd better hurry," the spirit's voice grew serious once more, and he positioned himself to one side of the portal. "We'll go through together. It could close at any second, and I can't bear to be separated from you again."

"Right!" Yugi flushed. He joined arms with the spirit and gave him an affirming nod. "Ready when you are, I guess."

"Then let's go!"

They set off together, the sound of Mako's restless thoughts bombarding their ears as they flung themselves headfirst into the portal toward the world of the living. Yugi closed his eyes, hoping to taste the familiar pang of the saltwater in his throat before he opened them again. The pang he experienced, however, was instead that of cranial trauma. Yugi felt his head slam into something unbearably solid, as though he'd just unwittingly strolled into a pane of glass.

"Ah…!"

"Ngh!"

That last subdued grunt sounded like the spirit. Yugi opened his eyes and saw him cradling his temple, having suffered similar misfortune. Yugi looked around, expecting to see a brick wall or some other obstacle placed directly in their path. Instead, he saw only the portal. They hadn't even left the spirit nexus.

"What's going on?" he asked, raising a hand in front of him. When his fingers reached a certain point in the centre of the aperture, they crumpled together as though they were colliding with an invisible barrier. The portal was somehow preventing them from leaving the nexus. "But this is the way out! It has to be! This can't be happening…"

"It's the way out," the spirit agreed through gritted teeth. He was squinting furiously, still suffering from the unexpected impact. "But not, apparently, for us."

"What are you saying?" asked Yugi, his palms plastered against the portal. He looked for all the world like an inter-dimensional mime artist, trapped between universes as punishment for his incessant abuse of the physical comedy genre. "We can't get out?"

"We can," the spirit corrected him, "but not through here. It isn't our portal." Apparently Yugi had telegraphed his next question, because the spirit was already halfway toward answering it before he could even open his mouth. "This portal belongs to Mako's father. Actually, it might just belong to Mako; after all, it was his memories that caused it to open. He was thinking of his father – we both heard it – and it opened a rift between worlds, one that allowed his father's spirit to visit him.

"Mako doesn't know we are dead. In fact, he doesn't even know that I exist. As far as he is concerned, there is only one Yugi Moto, and he is very much alive and well. He has no reason to remember us, so this portal will not let us pass through. Our only hope of finding a way back is to wait for someone to think of us – to remember us."

"To mourn us," Yugi added quietly. The throbbing sensation in his skull had been replaced by awe. If this were true – and assuming he could find the right portal – then he could travel back to the world of the living. For a moment, a terrible thought entered his mind: _What if nobody remembers me?_ _How will I ever see my friends again?_ But these questions answered themselves. "The gang! They'll be thinking of me! I know they will!"

"No doubt," the spirit smiled warmly. He placed a confident hand on Yugi's shoulder. "I think they'll have little else on their minds."

Once again, Yugi blushed. "How are we gonna find the right portal, though? There's so many…"

"The same way I found you," the spirit said. "The same way we brought ourselves here."

"So I should just remember them?" said Yugi. "Boy, that seems to be a popular solution around these parts. Lose your car keys? Try remembering! It fixes everything!" The spirit frowned. "I'm kidding around again."

"I know," he replied. "You said I didn't have to laugh."

"You do remember how though, right?" Yugi winked. "C'mon, let's go find us a portal!"

Yugi closed his eyes and began to concentrate on his friends. It didn't take long before he felt himself being pulled in one direction, as though someone had attached a cord to his body and was gradually retrieving it. Suddenly, however, it went slack. Yugi had stopped remembering. A panicked expression found its way onto his face and he turned back toward the Pharaoh.

"How will you get back?" he asked.

Judging by the look in the spirit's eyes, he had been anticipating this question. "I'm sure there are people who remember me, just as they do you, Yugi."

"But…"

"Just because I was a spirit," he continued, cutting Yugi off abruptly, "it doesn't mean people in your time didn't think of me as a person – as a friend. When they hear of your passing, I am sure they will mourn me." His chest rose suddenly, as though he were striving to hold his poise. "They may even be doing so now."

"Right," Yugi replied uncertainly. "But I… I can't just leave you here."

"You have no choice," the spirit told him. "Until someone remembers me, I must remain here."

Yugi clenched his fists so tightly that he could feel the pricks of his fingernails as they pierced the skin on his hands. "Don't make me do this. Don't make me choose between you or them."

"I'm not making you choose, Yugi," said the Pharaoh. "There is no choice to be made. You wish to be with them – so you will be with them." There was no underlying resentment to this sentence. The spirit understood precisely how Yugi felt in his heart; perhaps it was because they had been partners for so long, or perhaps he was just wise beyond his years. Either way, Yugi knew it pained him to confess to such innate empathy. "I shall join you eventually."

"Eventually!" said Yugi. "Whatever happened to 'I can't bear to be separated from you?'"

"I told you I liked soap operas," the spirit smirked despite himself.

"You're joking."

"Yes," the spirit replied. "Don't worry; you don't have to laugh."

Yugi sniffed. "Then I won't."

The spirit floated forward and placed his arms around his trembling counterpart. They held the embrace for as long as they could stand it, and then parted. The spirit was the first to speak. "Go to them, Yugi. I will be along shortly. I promise you."

"I'll remember you," Yugi hissed, holding up the empty shell of the Millennium Puzzle and thrusting it in the air for emphasis. "If nobody else does, then I will! And then you'll come to me! I know you will!"

The spirit nodded, and uttered a single syllable. "Go."

Yugi held onto that word as tightly as he could, and began once again to follow the trail of his memories. This time, however, he did so alone.

* * *

When he finally located his portal, Yugi found it difficult not to be insulted. It was noticeably smaller than the others, and appeared to leave very little room for his hair. If he was going to cross over to the world of the living, he was going to have to keep one hand placed firmly on his head for fear of losing it. He never told anybody, but he was actually very proud of his hairdo; people may have teased him for it, but nevertheless it was one of the three vital things he'd inherited from his grandfather. The others were his love for games and his Duel Monsters deck – and he would no sooner sacrifice those than he would a single hair on his head.

The one redeeming quality that the portal possessed, however, was that it seemed a great deal more stable than Mako's had been. The shadows around the edges didn't ripple, and this gave Yugi an enormous sense of relief. He didn't want to think he might get stuck on the other side with no means of returning; after all, he wasn't entirely sure that this was even a good idea. How long could spirits survive in the world of the living? And, more importantly, would the living be able to sense him? As much as he wanted to be with his friends, he didn't want to wind up haunting them. That was just about the worst thing you could do to a friend. In fact, Joey had once forced him to make a pact regarding that very thing. To his amusement, Yugi found he could still recite it from memory.

"I, Yugi Moto, do solemnly swear that, if I should die before one Joseph Wheeler, I shall not return to life as a spook, poltergeist, or other ghostly entity in order to haunt him. He's got too much to worry about already, and the last thing he needs is a dead friend coming back from the grave to frighten the pants off him while he's trying to eat!"

_I'm sorry, Joey,_ he thought, _but I just may have to break that pact. I hope you won't hold it against me._

It was difficult to see much of anything through the portal. It was as though it had been shrouded by mist – or, to be more exact, by smoke. Yugi remembered the fire, and wondered if that had anything to do with it. He leaned closer, hoping to catch a glimpse of something through the thick folds of fog.

_YUGI!_

He nearly fell over backwards at the sound of Téa's voice. She was screaming his name, but it sounded so odd – it seemed to trail off at the end, like she didn't expect him to answer. Before he could try to respond, another voice broke through the smoke.

_Yugi, man… How could this happen? We need you. You're my friend. You're _our_ friend. Come back to us. Please!_

That was Tristan. These voices sounded a lot louder than Mako's had. Maybe it was because was his portal, or maybe it was just that there were more people remembering him, Yugi couldn't be sure. Either way, it felt good to be able to hear them again; it felt good to know they were thinking about him. He smiled – and for the first time since he'd come upon the spirit of the Puzzle near the river, it was an honest to goodness smile.

"Tristan! Téa!" he called out across the nexus. "Don't worry! I'm coming!" With that, he started to pull himself through – making sure to keep one arm over his head, so that his hair wouldn't get caught. And still the voices kept on coming.

_YUGI!_

_Yugi… Yugi!_

_Oh my… Yugi…_

_Yuge. I'm sorry._

Yugi froze. That was Joey's voice. "Sorry? For what…?"

_I let you die, man. It's my fault._

"What?" Yugi's heart sank. "No! No, don't… don't say that! Don't think that, Joey! Please, don't!"

_If I hadn't o' gone and done somethin' stupid like that, you'd still be here._

"Joey! It's not your…!"

_You'd be here right now, and Téa wouldn't be cryin' like this. You should be the one holdin' her. Not me. I don't deserve it._

"Joey! Stop…!"

_I don't deserve to be alive…_

"NO!" Yugi screamed, his voice echoing across the gulf of space. He threw his arms forward, not caring whether he lost his hair or not, and dove into the portal. "JOEY!"

_Yuge… I'm sorry, man._

* * *

Far across the nexus, in some ancient pocket of the spirit world, the Pharaoh gazed into his own portal. It was a grand thing to behold – for, unlike those belonging to both Mako and Yugi, his was shaped like a circle, having been created many a millennium ago. He knew that it was his, for his memories – the few that still remained – had led him to it.

The Pharaoh's portal didn't show him a thing. It didn't look as though it led anywhere, nor did it look as though it could sustain itself for much longer than a minute at a time. Rather than rippling, as Mako's had been, his portal seemed to be decaying. Every so often it would shrink rapidly, its round edges contracting so that it appeared to be no wider than a plug-hole. It was as though it was taunting him, daring him to try and crawl through so that it could crush him when he least expected it. And that would be the end of his story – just another pathetic drifter trying to make his way back to a world that no longer wanted him.

The Pharaoh began to weep.

"They don't remember me," he whispered hoarsely. "And why would they? I was just Yugi's alter-ego… It's Yugi that they should remember. He's the one they…"

_… loved…_

The Pharaoh's head snapped up. That word had never left his lips, yet he had heard it all the same. "Is someone there?"

As if in response to his question, the portal expanded – and a flicker of light began to burn within the dim recesses of its mouth. A face appeared. It was a face he recognised. The face was remembering him – remembering him with such overwhelming fondness that it breathed new life into him.

_… know if you can hear me…_

_… gone, and I never even got…_

_… tell you…_

_… much I loved you…_

_… of you…_

_… please don't go…_

_… come back to us…_

_… loved you…_

The Pharaoh stepped through the portal, entranced by those half-spoken words.

As the portal accepted him, he spoke.

"Téa… Thank you for remembering me."

* * *

END OF CHAPTER SIX


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